Various PST Corruption Cases and Their Solution

A vital component of MS Outlook is its personal folders file, PST, which is located on the computer containing the Outlook data inclusive of email messages along with attachments, contacts, notes, and every other data item.

In some unfavorable situations, the PST file may come across various issues affecting the ongoing tasks. While using Outlook, you may encounter unexpected errors, one of which is as follows:

“Errors have been detected in the file xxxx.pst. Quit Outlook and all mail-enabled applications, and then use the Inbox repair tool (Scanpst.exe) to diagnose and repair errors in the file. For more information about the Inbox repair tool, see Help.”

Root Cause of the Error

The error crops up when you try to access a corrupt or damaged Outlook PST file.

The PST file is composed of two major components: header and body, where header is responsible for containing the file's most important information, including size of the file, file signature, compatibility, etc. When Outlook attempts to access a PST file, it first begins reading the file from header for verification of the signature match and compatibility. If verification failure occurs, it indicates that the header of the file is corrupt. Outlook again throws an error:

“The file xxxx.pst is not a personal folders file”.

On the other hand, if verification is successfully done, it continues reading the body of the file. In turn, if errors are found somewhere in between, Outlook throws the error that the post is discussing about. The message associated with the error also indicates you to use the inbuilt utility Inbox Repair Tool (scanpst.exe).

Another cause of the error may be size of the PST file if Outlook 2002 and earlier versions are being used. It is worth to note that these versions allow a maximum file-size limit of 2 GB for PST files and once this limit is reached, the file becomes corruption-prone. When the data placed goes beyond the limit, the file gets corrupt. Sad! When corruption occurs, you encounter huge data loss.

Well, in any case of PST corruption, the aforementioned utility ‘scanpst.exe’ is considered handy. However, when PST file is severely damaged, the tool does not perform the way it is supposed to. Moreover, sometimes the Inbox Repair tool itself meets corruption.

The last and greatest solution in this case is using professional Outlook PST repair software. The software will eliminate all the risks and recover the lost data from corrupt PST after repairing it.