Ways to restore emails from corrupt Outlook PST file

Summary:  Your import messages and other email data is saved in a PST file by MS Outlook as a local copy. PST files are easily accessible in any versions of the Outlook email client. However, due to some hardware failures and virus attacks, the PST file gets corrupted and become inaccessible or lose some data. In this blog, we find out ways to repair corrupt PST file and restore lost emails and other data.

Microsoft Outlook is one of the most used email clients by many Windows users around the world. PST (Personal Storage Table) file is a local copy of Outlook mailboxes which stores all type of emails, contacts, calendars, tasks, notes and attachments. It may get damaged or corrupt due to different reasons such as storage failures, network and power failure, virus or malware and abnormal Outlook termination and lost all Outlook data.

If the PST file gets corrupted, the MS Outlook application fails to access data from it. However, there are several tools to repair damaged PST file and recover lost emails and other items. Inbox Repair Tool (SCANPST.EXE) is an inbuilt tool of MS Office from Microsoft which is capable to fix normal corruption issues in PST files and restore data. But, SCANPST.EXE may not effectively recover all items from a corrupt Outlook PST file for reasons whatsoever.

SCANPST.EXE (Inbox Repair Tool)

Microsoft Office offers a built-in utility called Microsoft Outlook Inbox Repair Tool to repair damaged Outlook data file such as PST. So, if PST file gets corrupted you can try this repair tool to fix the issues of the PST file and recover data.

STEPS: Close the MS Outlook application.

1. Locate the SCANPST.EXE and run the tool. (you can locate this tool in MS Office installation folder ex: C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office16)
2. In Inbox Repair Tool click on Browse and locate & select the PST file you want to repair.
3. Now, click on the Start button to start the scan process. (The scan results shows the numbers of items and folders from the file and the errors that need to repair)                                                                                                                  
4. After scanning complete, click on Repair to fix the corrupt PST file.                                         
5. After repair complete click OK, launch the Outlook app.
6. Now open the account of the PST file you repaired and you will find 'Recovered Personal Folder’ in the folders list which contains the ‘Default Folder’ and the ‘Lost and found’ folder.
7. The ‘Lost and Found’ folder will contain all the recovered items if the process is successful.
8. Now you can move all the recovered items into a new PST file and delete the 'Recovered Personal Folder’ 

Note: The Inbox Repair Tool cannot repair every problem in PST file. In some cases, items may not be recovered if they were corrupted beyond repair.

What to do when the Inbox Repair Tool fails to recover data?

As we know in some cases, SCANPST.EXE is not capable enough to fix issues in PST file and fails to restore if the corruptions are too severe or the items are permanently deleted. In such cases, Inbox Repair Tool is useless in recovering your lost data.

In most cases, Inbox Repair Tool can not repair the corruptions of PST file which are larger or fails to restore an email, contact, calendar, journal or attachment which are accidentally deleted. To recover your lost data from severe corrupted PST files, you can use an advance PST File Repair Tool from V Software to repair the PST files.

vMail Outlook PST Repair / Recovery Tool

PST Repair Tool is an email repair software for Outlook data files. This software is capable to repair severe corruptions in PST file and restore all emails, contacts, calendars and other items. 

Steps to use PST Repair Software:

1. Download and install vMail PST Repair Tool.
2. Run the software and click Continue > Add File.
3. Now Browse and select the PST file and click Next.
4. The software will automatically scan and repair the PST file and restores all lost mailboxes and data. (you can preview each email here with all meta properties and attachments)
5. After scanning complete, click on the Convert option.
6. In the next window, Browse & select folder to save the final File.
7. Select Save to PST in save options to save the restored data to a healthy PST file.
8. Click on the Convert Now button to start the export process.
9. After the successful export, you can access your emails and data from PST file in account in MS Outlook.

vMail Outlook PST Repair tool performs these process quickly without losing any data. You can use this software to export PST file data to other formats like MBOX, EML, MSG, HTML, PDF, & vCard. This PST Converter Software can also directly export all emails, and other data from PST file to Office 365, Exchange Server & G Suite.