There is no better program than MS Outlook for managing emails and contacts, organizing events, scheduling tasks, and keeping notes. That is why organizations as well as individual users across the world rely on this Microsoft program for their email communication requirements.

Reasons of PST Corruption in MS Outlook

Outlook Data File (PST) is vulnerable to corruption due to various reasons such as:

  • PST size limitation errors
  • Exceeding storage space
  • Sudden termination of Outlook program
  • System corruption
  • Virus attacks

By knowing these situations and reasons, the users can actually avoid the corruption to some extent. But circumstances may arise anytime, and you might face corruption, so let’s discuss how to deal with it.

Recommended Solution
Try Recoveryfix for Outlook PST Repair tool to repair corrupt large sized PST files and save to new PST, DBX, MSG, & EML file.

Use the Inbox Repair Tool (Scanpst.exe) to Solve PST Corruption Issues

Scanpst.exe is an inbuilt PST repair tool by MS Outlook. It can be easily searched and accessed, this inbuilt utility diagnoses and repairs the corruption in a PST file. Follow the steps given below to run the Inbox Repair Tool on corrupt PST:

This method may or may not work for you considering the level of corruption, or it may fix the file partially. All in all, if it fails to recover the PST and data inside it, you might need an alternative solution. And what’s that?

    1. Locate the Scanpst.exe file and double-click it.
      Location of the Inbox Repair Tool (Scanpst.exe)
      Windows 32 bit Windows 64 bit

      Outlook 2013

      <disk drive>\Program
      Files\Microsoft Office 15\root\office15

      <disk drive>\Program
      Files(x86)\Microsoft Office 15\root\office15

      Outlook 2010

      <disk drive>:\Program
      Files\Microsoft Office\Office14

      <disk drive>:\Program
      Files\Microsoft Office(x86)\Office14

      Outlook 2007

      <disk drive>:\Program
      Files\Microsoft Office\Office12

      <disk drive>:\Program
      Files(x86)\Microsoft Office\Office12

  1. Browse and select the corrupt PST file, and click Start.
  2. Start Outlook with the profile that has the corrupt or damaged PST file.
  3. Turn on Folder List view (press CTRL + 6)
  4. Go to Lost and Found folder in the Recovered Personal Folders, to view the items recovered by the Inbox Repair Tool.
  5. Create a new PST file in Outlook and drag the items of the Lost and Found Folder to the new PST.
  6. Finally, delete the Recovered Personal Folders.

You may not be able to recover permanently deleted items and seriously corrupted items using this method. In that case you can use professional PST repair tools like RecoveryFIX for Outlook PST Repair to recover the items.