SIGforum.com    Main Page  Hop To Forum Categories  The Lounge    Recover corrupted Outlook files
Go
New
Find
Notify
Tools
Reply
  
Recover corrupted Outlook files Login/Join 
Member
posted
Hi folks. Trying to help my Dad. His Outlook file seems corrupted. Something about permissions. Geek Squad didn't seem very interested in helping.

I think I need to recover the .pst file. Im a mac guy and know nothing about PC's.

I'm thinking about trying to migrate him to a Mac. But he's 77 and I think it might be too much for him. Then again, anything had to be better than his current PC. It's a Dell all in one and is less than two years old.

Any thoughts?
 
Posts: 958 | Registered: October 07, 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Triggers don't
pull themselves
Picture of mdblanton
posted Hide Post
This has worked for me a couple of times: https://support.office.com/en-...12-86c4-60458afc5253

Michael
 
Posts: 1093 | Location: Petal, MS | Registered: January 21, 2012Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Nullus Anxietas
Picture of ensigmatic
posted Hide Post
First of all: Friends don't let friends use Microsoft Outlook.

Seriously. That application is just a disaster waiting to happen. When I was in IT (professionally) I had two internal customers that insisted on using it. One was the owner of the company and the other was a VP who was the 2nd biggest share-holder. So I had no choice.

Guess which two users accounted for most of the IT Department's email issues?

But if you absolutely must: Try this: Repair Outlook Data Files (.pst and .ost)

Hope he has a lot of disk space (more than the size of the existing .pst file) and RAM. And time. It's slow.

Good luck.



"America is at that awkward stage. It's too late to work within the system,,,, but too early to shoot the bastards." -- Claire Wolfe
"If we let things terrify us, life will not be worth living." -- Seneca the Younger, Roman Stoic philosopher
 
Posts: 26009 | Location: S.E. Michigan | Registered: January 06, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
posted Hide Post
Cool. Ill give it a try. The message BTW is:

"The item Referred by this shortcut can't be accessed. You may not have the appropriate permissions."

Maybe its a different problem.
 
Posts: 958 | Registered: October 07, 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
posted Hide Post
Did I mention I know NOTHING about PC's? Smile
 
Posts: 958 | Registered: October 07, 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Optimistic Cynic
Picture of architect
posted Hide Post
Try running Outlook from the Start menu rather than the Desktop alias/shortcut.
 
Posts: 6400 | Location: NoVA | Registered: July 22, 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
The Unmanned Writer
Picture of LS1 GTO
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by architect:
Try running Outlook from the Start menu rather than the Desktop alias/shortcut.


My first thought too.

Error reads like the shortcut link broke. Or outlook has been deleted.







Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.



Only in an insane world are the sane considered insane.


The memories of a man in his old age
Are the deeds of a man in his prime


 
Posts: 14020 | Location: It was Lat: 33.xxxx Lon: 44.xxxx now it's CA :( | Registered: March 22, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
posted Hide Post
Sorry I can't help.
But we have Outlook for work and at home.
Nothing but issues. At least as bad as ITunes.
 
Posts: 1950 | Location: Indiana or Florida depending on season  | Registered: March 18, 2012Reply With QuoteReport This Post
quarter MOA visionary
Picture of smschulz
posted Hide Post
Oh Jeebus ensigmatic > you're retired so what do you know? Go back to your "Man Cave" and finish watching Matlock. Razz

First, how do you know it is a corrupted PST?
Permissions?
Way too little data to determine a fix.

I have had my own Exchange Server since 1998.
I have been through multiple iterations of Outlook , some good and some (Office 2007) bad.
However, Outlook is a great application and when used with MS Server products aka Exchange or O365 it is great.
Used on other types it is not as effective.

But we can't fix the problem (if there is one) by simply bashing MS even though it feels good to some. Eek

Throw some more data and perhaps we can fix it.
YMMV
 
Posts: 22858 | Location: Houston, TX | Registered: June 11, 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Chip away the stone
Picture of rusbro
posted Hide Post
I used to have to help the elderly founder of our company with Outlook on his home PC, and I went through all that crap with him. He was constantly fat-fingering stuff (actually, shaky-handing stuff) and I had to remote to his PC or drive to his house to set things right. I also went through corrupt pst files, too-large pst files, migration, Outlook version updates, etc.

If/when you resolve the problem, I'd seriously consider moving him to a browser-based email account, gmail in particular, if you are familiar with it.

IMO it's much more straightforward then Outlook, easier for you to assist him remotely, nothing to ever have to migrate if/when his PC dies, and much harder for him to "break."
 
Posts: 11597 | Registered: August 22, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
Picture of grumpy1
posted Hide Post
Nothing wrong with Oulook, unless using a really old version. Before I retired I supported one of my clients that has hundreds of users on Outlook 2013 and few problems. Most businesses and even a lot of individuals are moving to hosted Exchange anyway and if there is a problem with the data file a new one can be created and email downloaded from server.

Don't go to Geek Squad for such a problem. They are basically sales people with low skills in IT area.

In my experience the error message does not indicate a problem with the Outlook data file and as mentioned a problem with the shortcut. Try entering outlook.exe in the run or start box. Hopefully he did not pick up some nasty malware.

In the mean time your Dad may be able to access his email, or at least some of it, by going to the web based email for the provider. From his email address you probably can find the provider and go from there or call/contact support from the provider or internet service provider if he is using their email. He will need his email address and password. Hope he knows his email password and yes he has one though he may not realize it.
 
Posts: 9730 | Location: Northern Illinois | Registered: March 20, 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
posted Hide Post
Make sure to make a copy of the PST file first in a different directory. Pick one, and run the SCANPST program. If you're able to fix it, then open Outlook, create a NEW PST file, then COPY the data from the old to the new - DO NOT MOVE data as it can corrupt the file again.

This is very important especially for the earlier versions that had a smaller file size limitation.

Contact me via my email if you have questions.
 
Posts: 2768 | Location: Northern California | Registered: December 01, 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Nullus Anxietas
Picture of ensigmatic
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by Spokane228:
Cool. Ill give it a try. The message BTW is:

"The item Referred by this shortcut can't be accessed. You may not have the appropriate permissions."

Maybe its a different problem.

Yeah. Sounds like the thing to which the shortcut used to refer has either gone missing or something has restricted access to it.



"America is at that awkward stage. It's too late to work within the system,,,, but too early to shoot the bastards." -- Claire Wolfe
"If we let things terrify us, life will not be worth living." -- Seneca the Younger, Roman Stoic philosopher
 
Posts: 26009 | Location: S.E. Michigan | Registered: January 06, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Live long
and prosper
Picture of 0-0
posted Hide Post
Long time ago, outlook wasn't fond of .pst larger than x mb or something like that. Check what version you're running and what is the size of the file. Maybe there's the rub.


0-0


"OP is a troll" - Flashlightboy, 12/18/20
 
Posts: 12090 | Location: BsAs, Argentina | Registered: February 14, 2003Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
Picture of 4MUL8R
posted Hide Post
I somehow managed to convince my elderly mother to go away from Outlook to gmail, and she has for a couple of years embraced the cloud. It has really helped for her to have both smartphone and desktop gmail reading the same items. I can, if need be, remote in to her gmail to help. We also went to google drive so she has files in the cloud. Really helped when her hard drive failed, and I had to install a new one.


-------
Trying to simplify my life...
 
Posts: 5041 | Location: Commonwealth of Virginia | Registered: January 15, 2007Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Nullus Anxietas
Picture of ensigmatic
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by 0-0:
Long time ago, outlook wasn't fond of .pst larger than x mb or something like that.

I believe that was actually a 16- or 32-bit hardware/OS issue. Or maybe a FAT filesystem issue?



"America is at that awkward stage. It's too late to work within the system,,,, but too early to shoot the bastards." -- Claire Wolfe
"If we let things terrify us, life will not be worth living." -- Seneca the Younger, Roman Stoic philosopher
 
Posts: 26009 | Location: S.E. Michigan | Registered: January 06, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
Picture of grumpy1
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by ensigmatic:
quote:
Originally posted by 0-0:
Long time ago, outlook wasn't fond of .pst larger than x mb or something like that.

I believe that was actually a 16- or 32-bit hardware/OS issue. Or maybe a FAT filesystem issue?


I believe Outlook 2000 and earlier had a hard 2 GB limit on .pst file size. I ran into that a number of times.
 
Posts: 9730 | Location: Northern Illinois | Registered: March 20, 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
quarter MOA visionary
Picture of smschulz
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by ensigmatic:
quote:
Originally posted by 0-0:
Long time ago, outlook wasn't fond of .pst larger than x mb or something like that.

I believe that was actually a 16- or 32-bit hardware/OS issue. Or maybe a FAT filesystem issue?


No that would be incorrect.
In Outlook 2002 and earlier, the .pst files are in the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) format, and the overall size has a limit of 2 gigabytes (GB).

And getting back to the original problem we don't really know what the problem is so prescribing a PST db repair is premature.
 
Posts: 22858 | Location: Houston, TX | Registered: June 11, 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
  Powered by Social Strata  
 

SIGforum.com    Main Page  Hop To Forum Categories  The Lounge    Recover corrupted Outlook files

© SIGforum 2024