DIY Guide to Repair Outlook Files in Easy Steps

Microsoft Outlook automatically reserves all emails, contacts, tasks, notes, attachments, and calendars in PST file format. The PST file contains a lot of critical data. But, what will happen if your PST files get corrupted? You might lose your crucial data and might face difficulty restoring these files. In such a situation, users get worried and run for technical help. However, If you are stuck in such a situation, you can easily tackle it on your own with simple methods. In this post, we will be discussing the best reliable ways i.e. manual and automated PST Recovery Tool to repair Outlook files. But before that, let us look at the reasons for Outlook data file corruption.

Factors Responsible for PST File Corruption

Various reasons lead to Outlook PST corruption. Some of them are listed below: 

• When users use Outlook on a day-to-day basis. It expands the size of PST files and they get corrupt.
• Storing PST files in the wrong location on the hard drive can lead to a higher chance of corruption for those files.
• Using unreliable software to compress PST files may cause file corruption.
• When we download any software that contains a virus. This unauthorized entry of the virus also corrupts the PST file.

How do I Repair a Corrupt PST File using Manual Ways?

The best available solution to manually repair Outlook files is using the Scanpst.exe tool. It is an inbuilt software of Microsoft Outlook to repair Outlook data file. Let’s discuss this method in the succeeding section.

In this method, we will use the Scanpst.exe utility to repair PST files. This method consists of three stages which are listed below:       

• Find Scanpst.exe on PC  
• Set up Scanpst.exe on the system
• Save the recovered data in a new PST file.

Now follow the below-given instructions to proceed further.

Phase 1: Find Scanpst.exe on PC

To start the process, locate the scanpst.exe on your PC. There are different locations for different versions of Outlook. Given below are locations for different Outlook versions:

• For Outlook versions 2019, 2016, 365 –C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\root\Office16
•  For Outlook edition 2013 – C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office15
• For Outlook version 2010 – C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office14
• For Outlook edition 2007 – C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12

Phase 2: Set up Scanpst.exe on the system

After locating the scanpst.exe, Start Scanpst.exe on your system to repair PST files. Follow the below instructions to fix the PST file: 

1. First of all, close Outlook, If operating in the background.
2. Now, press Browse to find the corrupted PST file you want to recover and hit Start.
3. The scan process will take some time to finish.
4. After the scanning process ends, tap on Repair to start the repairing process.

After the repairing procedure is completed, Initiate the Outlook app with the profile linked with the PST File you repaired in the previous phase.

Phase 3: Save the recovered data in a new PST file

To protect your retrieved files from further corruption, you need to save repaired PST files in a newly created PST file. Follow the below steps to save repaired files:

1. Launch Outlook on your system.
2. Now click on Inbox and select New Items. 
3. After that, opt for More Items and choose Outlook data file from the number of options. 
4. Then, provide a name to the file.
5. Opt for the Add Optional Password box to password-protect your PST file and hit OK.
6. Now, provide a unique password for your new PST file and tap the OK button.

With the above manual procedure, you can fix the PST file for Free. However, using manual ways may cause serious issues. Apart from this Manual process is not free from shortcomings. Let us learn these weaknesses in the below context.

Disadvantages of using the Manual Technique

Some major drawbacks of the Manual process are listed below:

• Unable to recover highly damaged files. It only repairs low-level issues of corruption.
• The files can't be recovered fully from the damaged PST file via manual ways, and you may encounter data loss.
• The manual tricks fail to maintain data integrity.
• Sometimes scanpst.exe utility does not respond when we hit the Repair button.
• Manual processes contain many steps and take a lot of time to complete.

To solve the above issues and repair Outlook files, we have another alternative for users. The other option is using an automated tool to repair Outlook data files. Now we will discuss the automatic method in the below context. 

How to Repair PST Files without Scanpst?

The reliable choice for Outlook PST Repair is via the Automatic method. In the automatic approach, we will use trustworthy and safe software for PST repair. There are many tools available online to repair Outlook files, but the experts recommend using the MailConverterTools PST Recovery Tool. It is a powerful tool that helps to repair corrupted PST files and inaccessible files safely. This utility can save the recovered data to various file formats like EML, MSG, MBOX, DBX, etc. The tool has three types of recovery modes for different levels of corruption. The degree of recovery mode is Advanced, Standard, and Deep. Additionally, it can fix various Outlook errors such as “Microsoft Outlook Keeps Crashing” for smooth access of Outlook data by the users. Moreover, the tools guarantee the security of data and repair the Outlook PST data with no data loss.

Final Thoughts

This guide provides easy and do-it-yourself methods to repair Outlook files. It includes a Manual process to fix PST files with a complete guide. However, the manual approach is not safe and unable to recover files when the level of corruption is High. Thus we discussed the automated method. It is completely safe and recommended by experts. Therefore, we suggest users opt for an automatic method for PST file recovery.