.PST file help

amyamandaallen

Hi.

One of our users has been backing his achive PST files to a network share. Im told this is a very BAD idea! It appears his PST has corrupted. After reading the WWW I found the inbox PST repair tool ( the files about 200mb ) and ran it. It appears to have repaired the PST file but when we try to reimport the repaired file back into outlook it appears empty.

Any ideas urgently needed.

HEEELLLLLLLLPPPPPPPPPP

Amy.

Lee H

Hi

try copying the pst to the local machine, verify its size

try opening the pst on another Outlook account

this pst is on a network share, has it been backed up?, if so try access a backup of the pst and go from there

many options for you to try, let us know how you get on

Lee H

doom969

If the .pst was on a windows 2003 share, you might have a shadow copy of it.

phreak

How would backing up the PST to a share cause problems?

blargoe

It isn't, but accessing it over a network share can cause problems and isn't supported by Microsoft, or at least it wasn't a few years ago.

Claymoore

Acessing a PST (especially a large one) over a network share is a very bad idea. Seriously - a very bad idea. You can crash the entire file server.

PSTs are designed for block-level access like on a local hard drive and not file-level access like on a network share. PSTs work like a mini database and when you access them and make changes, Outlook has to allocate extra space on the disk in an amount based on a percentage of the size of the PST. This works fine on a local drive, but when you use a network share the file server has to do this and it doen't like it. The file server has to use memory to simulate the expansion for the client and this results in the server running out of non-paged pool memory. This can prevent clients from accessing other large files - not just PSTs, but you will only get a generic 'out of disk space' or 'out of server resources' error message on the client. If you search the system event log on the file server you will eventually find errors regarding the non-paged memory pool being empty. The only solution I know of is to reboot the server.

The good news is the PST is probably fine, but the non-paged pool errors on the server are preventing you from accessing or copying it. Disconnect the Outlook client from the PST using the Data File Management option under File. Reboot both the server and the client and then copy the PST to a local drive.

I had to learn all this the hard way when we implemented mailbox quotas to reduce the size of our message stores. A group of users decided to 'help' by moving old emails to PST files stored on their home drives. I spent a week chasing strange errors on the file server before I found out the cause. Then we spent another week cleaning up the mess because the server would eventually start failing and I had to schedule an after-hours reboot.

snadam

amyamandaallen wrote:

Hi.

One of our users has been backing his achive PST files to a network share. Im told this is a very BAD idea! It appears his PST has corrupted. After reading the WWW I found the inbox PST repair tool ( the files about 200mb ) and ran it. It appears to have repaired the PST file but when we try to reimport the repaired file back into outlook it appears empty.

Any ideas urgently needed.

HEEELLLLLLLLPPPPPPPPPP

Amy.

From what you wrote, your just a step away from finishing this (see bold)...If im way off base, then I also provided the entire link on how to use the inbox repair tool

recoverd pst file wrote:

Recovered Personal Folders File
After you run the Inbox Repair Tool, start Outlook by using the profile that contains the Personal Folders (.pst) file that you tried to repair. On the View menu, click Folder List to turn on the Folder List view. In your Folder List, you should see the following recovered folders:

Recovered Personal Folders

Calendar
Contacts
Deleted Items
Inbox
Journal
Notes
Outbox
Sent Items
Tasks


These recovered folders are usually empty, because this is a rebuilt .pst file. You should also see a folder called "Lost And Found" (without quotation marks). This folder contains folders and items that the Inbox Repair Tool recovered. Items that are missing from the Lost and Found folder are beyond repair.

Kasor

That's why we never recommend the user to save their email to the local machine. Always keep it on the Email SVR and with backup system. .pst is only good if you need to transfer with limited amount of file in size.

Anyway, if you don't see them after using the tool. Then sorry to say, it will not happen.

You need to implement email SVR backup like Enterprise Vault

phreak

Hm...


Oops.





I guess I need to move my users pst files from the network share back onto their local machines to prevent a future issue then?


Best procedure would be to copy the pst off the file server back onto the local users machine, doing one user at a time (or in batches, whatever...) and then reboot the server hosting the pst files?

HeroPsycho

Why you shouldn't...

http://blogs.technet.com/askperf/archive/2007/01/21/network-stored-pst-files-don-t-do-it.aspx

And the official official stance...

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/297019

blargoe

A company that I used to work for used a Personal Folders backup addin from Microsoft to backup the email to the network drive, but the "in use" copy was stored on the local disk. I can't speak for it personally, since I didn't use it or support it since I wasn't supporting desktops at that time, but here is the link to the tool if you are interested

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=8b081f3a-b7d0-4b16-b8af-5a6322f4fd01&displaylang=en

phreak

Whoa ssssweeeet!


I'm going to test the M$ PST backup you linked to...



My primary reason for re-locating the PST was because i have lusers that do not ever clear their inboxes out and they want some kind of backup.


I have been explicitly told by the company owner to NOT archive email though..... I still am struggling to understand that one. I think it's because he is cheaping out on a backup solution and does not want to pay for a tape drive system.

andrew04

amyamandaallen wrote:

Hi.

One of our users has been backing his achive PST files to a network share. Im told this is a very BAD idea! It appears his PST has corrupted. After reading the WWW I found the inbox PST repair tool ( the files about 200mb ) and ran it. It appears to have repaired the PST file but when we try to reimport the repaired file back into outlook it appears empty.

Any ideas urgently needed.

HEEELLLLLLLLPPPPPPPPPP

Amy.

Hi Amy

If running the Inbox tool unable to solve your problem create a new pst and import the file into it.
You can take help of Pst recovery software. Stellar Phoenix outlook Pst repair tool scan your damaged outlook and recover all your data. You can download demo version from the site
http://www.repair-outlook-pst.com/.
In demo version you can preview 5 e-mails, 20% of contacts and calendar entries. If you feel that it works than go for full version.