How to Repair a Broken PST File
Published Tuesday, October 19, 2021
Most of the errors in Outlook arise due to corruption in the Personal Folders (PST) file. This further leads to the isolation of all the mailbox data. Inability to access the important database hinders productivity and in several cases puts financial strain on individuals and industries alike. If your PST file also appears to be broken and you have nowhere to know how to fix it, then read this write-up thoroughly. As here, you will know how to repair a broken PST file with ease and restore all its contents to their original state.
Reasons for Outlook PST Corruption:
New PST File Creation:
During the update of Outlook to a newer version, a new PST file might override and corrupt the old PST file.
Gigantic PST File:
As Outlook stores all of its mailbox items in PST, continuous usage may lead to a large PST file. And a large file is always prone to corruption.
Virus Attack:
No system is immune to virus attacks. Such infections not only affect the PST file but may also damage your system folders.
System Concerns:
Another factor that can lead to a broken PST file is the development of bad sectors in the storage system.
File Partaking on Diverse Networks:
Quite often, network drives are used to share PST files among one another. But accessing the file over a network may lead to its corruption. There lie various technical reasons behind this.
Whether the reasons for your PST file to get corrupted or broken are known to you or not, the fact remains that you need to repair it to make it accessible. To overcome such issues, you can try the manual method or third-party tools to repair PST files.
The Manual Method to Repair a Broken PST File
To be able to restore a broken PST file, you will need the Inbox Repair Tool i.e., ScanPST.exe utility. This application is present on all the systems containing MS Outlook. The location of this utility varies as per the Outlook versions, but it remains similar to:
<C>\Program Files\Microsoft Office\root\ [or Program Files(x86)]
In this folder, look for a sub-folder named Office that ends with Office16, 13, 19, etc.
The steps are as follows:
Make sure that MS Outlook is close
Locate and open the ScanPST.exe tool on your computer
Browse the PST file that appears to be broken.
Click on the Start button to start the repairing process.
If the process is successful, launch Outlook and create a new PST file.
Move the recovered items (present in the Lost and Found folder) into your new PST.
Looking at the steps, it is not so hard to follow and implement. However, it still has some limitations that you should be aware of.
Limitations of Manual Method
The utility is not designed to handle complex Outlook errors and fails to deliver when the file is highly corrupted. Also, in certain situations, it will recover only partial items and hence is not very trustworthy to use.
If it works for your broken file, then well and good. But if it doesn’t, then you need to opt for a third-party tool i.e., Repair PST Tool.
Repair Broken PST File of Outlook 2019, 2016, 2013
In such situations where manual utility fails to deliver intended results, a high-tech automated solution is required. The Outlook PST Repair Tool is a diligent utility that accurately repairs all the broken or corrupt PST files and recovers the damaged data within them. It creates a new PST file with all the recoverable items in a healthy format. With excellent ratings and reviews, this is certainly one of the top repair tools of 2019.
Steps to Repair broken Outlook PST File:
1. Start the repair tool.
2. Click "Add file".
3. Search or manually add the broken PST file.
4. Set "Advanced Scan mode" to scan and repair broken parts.
5. The software will showcase all the recovered items in a preview panel.
6. Select "PST" and click on "Export" to get a healthy PST file.
This tool can repair broken Outlook PST files irrespective of the level of corruption. The size and state of the PST file are of no significance, as the tool proficiently restores the data within them. It supports the recovery of all mailbox items including emails, contacts, calendars, tasks, notes, and journals. You can simply choose what you want to restore. Other advanced options include the ability of selective email export, data filters, split PST, and much more.
Conclusion
There is no doubt that MS Outlook is at the top of desktop email clients. With hundreds of millions of active users, it is the most sought-after email client. However, many of its users had to experience file corruption issues. Rest assured, if your PST file appears to be broken, you can use the methods depicted in this write-up to repair them. The procedure given here can repair a broken PST file irrespective of the Outlook version.
