Problem with Outlook 2007- Help needed (please)

abff

My Outlook 2007 has suddenly stopped working.

When I tried to empty my deleted items folder this afternoon, I got a message telling me that there was a problem with my outlook.pst file and that I should exit mail and use the Inbox repair tool scanpst.exe, but I can't any such file on my PC. When I click on Outlook help, it gets me nowhere.

A similar message comes up when I try to delete individual emails.

When I clicked send/receive, it told me that I was receiving 15 items, but none of them appeared in my Inbox.

I can't send or receive emails from my PC, but I can using owa from my iPhone and iPad.

I'm also getting a message telling me that I have exceeded my maximum permitted mailbox size and suggesting I delete some items (which brings me back in a not so nice loop to my 2nd sentence above!).

I contacted my ISP and they said that is is a software issue and suggested I remove and re-install Outlook. Apart from the fact that I'm not sure where the product key is, I am afraid that this would cause me to lose all unarchived items.

Another suggestion by my ISP was that I upgrade to a newer version of Outlook. Can I do this without losing my unarchived emails and, if so, how do I go about it and how much is it likely to cost?

Sorry if the above is a bit all over the place, but I'm not the most tech savvy and would we very grateful for any (helpful) suggestions on where I should go from here.

It does sound like the PST file is corrupt.

This site has information on where to find the scanpst.exe tool and how to use it.

It comes with Outlook so should be on your system somewhere.

Metric Tensor

I know that legacy editions of Outlook Express had a maximum size for any box (inbox, outbox, etc.) of 2GB. Once you hit that no more messages would come in and the program would hang if you tried to move messages out.

The way around this was to create a new, empty, folder and then shut down OE. Then find the .dbx files and switch the name of that one and your inbox so that when you next opened OE you had an empty inbox and a 2GB additional folder.

No idea if this is an issue with Outlook 2007 or not though. Or even if it uses .dbx files.

smuggler.ie

Providing you outlook is/was syncing with server (owa)and you still see all you messages there , you can try to rename( do not delete just yet ) your data file and allow to resync with server:
1. Open outlook an go: FILE-ACCOUNT SETTINGS-ACCOUNT SETTINGS.
2 In new popup windows go to Data File tab, select your account datafile and press OPEN FILE LOCATION- new File Explorer windows will pop with datafile highlited.
3. Important!!! Close ALL outlook windows now( you won't be able modify datafile if it is in use by outlook)
4. Back in your datafile folder. Rename your data file to xxxxxx@xxxxxx.xxx - xxxxx.pst ( or ost).OLD Do not modify any other files in there.
5 After datafile renamed, open outlook and allow to complete sync. New datafile will be created automatically with original name. Depending on file size and Internet speed could take some time.

Outlook 2007 data file size limit by default is 20GB ( if not mistaking) but it can be increased by modifying registry. Take note of size of your datafile when renaming it or check on owa. New data file after sync completed should be same size as in owa.

abff

Thanks folks. Problem solved now. Not sure why the file got corrupted in the first place, but everything is working again. I've archived everything over a few months old, so hopefully this will solve any problems related to the overall file size.