How to Fix Your Damaged PST File - An Useful Guide

If your Microsoft Outlook PST file is not opening, or if you doubt that the file is damaged, run the Inbox Repair Tool called SCANPST.EXE. This tool will check whether the data file is working fine or not. If any errors are diagnosed, then the utility will ask you to allow it to fix those errors.

Repairing corrupted PST file

Step 1: First of all, exit from Outlook application and Browse to C:\Program Files or C:\Program Files(x86) depending on your system’s configuration.

Step 2: Now, type SCANPST.EXE in the search box. If the tool is not found, then try to search in the folder location based on your version of Outlook:

• For Outlook 2019: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\root\Office19
• For Outlook 2016: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\root\Office16
• For Outlook 2013: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office15
• For Outlook 2010: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office14
• For Outlook 2007: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office12

Step 3: Open SCANPST.

Step 4: Provide the name of the .pst file that you want check for errors or select Browse to choose the file.

Step 5: Choose Start to begin the scanning process.

Step 6: If any errors are found during the scan, select Repair option to fix damaged PST file.

Important – During the repair process, the scan will create a backup file. To change the location or default name of this file, enter a new name in the Enter name of backup file box.

Step 7: Once the process is completed, begin the Outlook with the profile associated with our PST file.

A note on the limitations of SCANPST.EXE Toolkit!

Chances are the utility might stop and hang in between file scanning, which is probably due to large size of the PST file! Likewise, there are many other limitations that you may face while using SCANPST.EXE utility. Those are:

• PST files are repaired from minor issues and not recovered from damage. So, you cannot deal with severe corruption issues
• Large sized PST might end up slowing up the performance
• You cannot handle PST files protected with passwords or the ones surfaced with any data deletion

What to do if scanPST.exe does not work?

When you find the corruption issues are not resolved by the Inbox Repair tool, that is where you end up looking for an alternative, which is available in the form of Remo Repair Outlook Software.

Remo Repair Outlook, being one of the best amongst PST file repair utilities would be suggestive to repair corrupt or damaged PST file. You will get to repair PST file that is severely corrupted / damaged, repair password protected PST. Further, it also resolves permanent data deletion cases too, meaning the tool recovers all the deleted as well as lost PST file attributes, including email, contacts, notes, journals, calendar items, etc.

Steps to Fix Damaged PST File with Remo Outlook Repair:

Follow this simple guide to repair damaged PST file:

Step 1: Download Remo Repair Outlook and install the software on your Windows PC. When you launch the application, you’ll find three options. Those are: “Open PST File”, “Find PST File” and “Select Outlook Profile”. Click on “Open PST File” button to select the damaged PST file when you know the exact location. Choose “Find PST File” button to locate your damaged PST file or click on “Select Outlook Profile” to select a particular Outlook profile when you have multiple accounts with multiple .pst files.

Figure A: Main Screen

Step 2: Select the appropriate scanning method to scan PST file. Browse for the destination path and click on “Repair” button to start the procedure of fixing damaged PST file.

Figure B: Choose the File and Scanning Method

Step 3: Choose for the free scan.

Step 4: You can see the status of the repair process...

Step 5: The tool will successfully repair the file and displays the recovered Outlook mails and other elements like calendars, contacts, tasks, journals, notes etc. To save the repaired PST file, click on Activate Software and get the license key.

Figure C: Preview the Repaired PST and Save