Using COM Add-in can result in corrupt PST

A COM (Component Object Model) add-in is a specifically designed functionality in which specific commands and tasks are added in Office applications. These add-ins perform are pretty useful as these save time and other related overheads. One such COM add-in is Kingsoft Power Word that translates Chinese to English and vice versa in Outlook. However, at times it can cause Outlook to crash unexpectedly thereby causing the PST file to get corrupt. It is notable that the PST file contains all the Outlook-related information. In such cases, you should uninstall the COM add-in and check Outlook. If the error is still there, then you should use a third-party PST Recovery software to recover PST file.

Consider a scenario wherein you are working on MS Outlook 2003 when it quits unexpectedly. An error message is displayed, that is:

“Microsoft Office Outlook has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience.
Please tell Microsoft about this problem.
We have created an error report that you can send to help us improve Office Outlook. We will treat this report as confidential and anonymous.
To see what data this error report contains, click here.”

Cause:

The root cause of this abnormal normal is that you may have installed the Kingsoft Power Word COM add-in. Sometimes, this COM add-in releases memory in an unsupported manner. Because of this, Outlook holds a reference of the released memory that causes Outlook to quit abruptly when it attempts to access the released memory. The other cause of this situation is that the PST file is corrupted that is making Outlook to behave in this manner.

Resolution:

To resolve this situation, you should try to remove the installed Outlook COM add-in. To do this, you should perform the following steps:

1. Start Outlook 2003.
2. Click the Options option in the Tools menu.
3. In the Other tab, perform the following steps:
i. Click the Advanced Options button.
ii. Click the COM Add-ins button in the Advanced Options dialog box.
iii. In the Add-ins list, clear the selected add-in.
iv. Click OK to close the COM Add-ins dialog box.
v. Click OK to close the Advanced Options dialog box.
vi. Click OK to close the Options dialog box.

The aforementioned method should be able to resolve the error message. If you still are getting the error message, that means the PST is corrupt. In such cases, you should use a third-party PST Recovery Tool to recover PST. Such read-only tools are able to restore PST data using fast yet sophisticated scanning algorithms.

Outlook PST Repair is a PST recovery software that enables you to recover corrupted PST files from MS Outlook 2010, 2007, 2003, 2002, and 2000. It is able to recover various Outlook objects such as emails, contacts, journals, tasks, calendar entries, etc. In addition, this PST file recovery software is able to preserve the formatting of the RTF and HTML messages. It is compatible with Windows 7, Vista, Server 2003, XP, and Server 2000.

'Outlook.pst file cannot be opened' error while accessing PST file transferred through network

Many organizations use Microsoft Outlook e-mail client to facilitate communication among its employees. The Outlook stores e-mails, calendars, contacts, journals etc in a .pst (Personal Storage File) for each profile. You can transfer a .pst file from one machine to another using a USB, or CD etc. But when administrators use a network to share a .pst file, it becomes quite vulnerable to corruption. In such events, it becomes necessary to perform PST Recovery in order to access the important e-mails and other data. In fact it is unsupported by Microsoft if you store or share your .pst file over a network.

As a practical case, you may encounter the following error while accessing your .pst file which was transferred through a network:

“Outlook .pst file cannot be opened”

As a result, you are not able to access any component of your .pst file. Moreover, it indicates that there is something wrong with the .pst file.

Cause:

The above error could have surfaced in the following scenarios:

1.If your .pst file has got corrupted.
2.Or your .pst file could have got damaged due to the incompatibility of the software versions on both systems (For instance, you transfer a .pst file created with Outlook 2000 on a Windows 2003 machine to a Windows XP machine which has Outlook 2007 installed)

Resolution:

If your .pst file has been damaged due to any of the above reasons, it becomes necessary for you to perform pst recovery by repairing the damaged .pst file using scanpst.exe. To recover PST you can execute the following steps:

1. Click Start, go to Search.
2. Click All files and folders link and then type scanpst.exe.
3. Click the Search button. After the search ends, you can view the scanpst.exe file in the result.
4. Double-click the scanpst.exe file. You will be asked to browse the location of damaged Outlook .pst file.
5. Click the Browse button to locate the damaged .pst file. You can also locate the PST file in different operating systems by following the below given paths:

Windows 98 or Windows Me: Disk Drive > Windows > Local Settings > Application Data

Windows NT 4.0: Disk Drive > WINNT > Profiles >username > Local Settings >Application Data

Windows XP or Windows Server 2003: Disk Drive > Documents and Settings > username >Local Settings >Application Data >Microsoft >Outlook

Windows Vista: Disk Drive > users > username > AppData > Local >Microsoft >Outlook

6. Hit Start button, the scanpst.exe will start repairing the corrupt or damaged .pst file. After the completion of process, start Outlook and you will see all recovered folders. The next step would be to create a new .pst file and use the recovered folders.

It has been observed that Inbox Repair Tool (scanpst.exe) doesn't always fix a damaged .pst file and you have to rely on a third-party pst recovery software.

Such PST Recovery tool employ improved and effective scanning algorithms and repair corrupt or damaged Outlook PST file.

Outlook PST Repair is an easy-to-use utility which repairs a corrupt pst file and recovers all its components, irrespective of the complexity of the damage. The pst file recovery software supports Microsoft Outlook 2010, 2007, 2003, 2002 and 2000.

How to Repair Corrupted PST File in Outlook 2007?

Microsoft Outlook is an advanced and widely used email client and personal information manager, developed and marketed by Microsoft Corporation. It is the part of Microsoft Office suite of products. The latest version of this application is Microsoft Office Outlook 2007. It has improved user interface and security features, which safeguard your valuable data against any type of data loss situations. However, in some situations, the main storage file of Microsoft Outlook; PST (Personal Storage Table) file gets damaged and your precious data become inaccessible. In such critical situations, you need to Recover PST file, if backup is not updated.

Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 stores all your valuable Outlook data, such as emails, contacts, tasks, notes, journal, attachments, appointments, and calendar, in the PST file. PST file works like a database and create index for all its objects to ensure high performance and easy data management. There is no size limit for the PST file in Microsoft Office Outlook 2007, however Outlook 2002 and earlier versions have 2 GB size limit for the PST file.

Under some circumstances, the Outlook PST file gets damaged due to numerous reasons. The most frequent causes of Outlook 2007 PST corruption are as given below:

• Application Malfunction- If Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 gets crashed or malfunctions due to any reasons, like missing or corrupt system files, you may come across PST file corruption.

• Virus Infection- Viruses are malicious programs, which may remove or corrupt the critical files of Microsoft Outlook or even the PST file.

• File System Errors- Microsoft Windows keeps entry of PST file in the hard drive file system. If your system face any kind of file system problems or errors, PST file may become faulty and it becomes totally inaccessible.

• Improper Application Termination- If Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 application shuts down improperly, due to power outage or system crash, PST file may get damaged. To avoid such situations, you need to quit or close the application properly.

In all such situations, the PST file become totally inaccessible and the PST recovery becomes need of hour. Recovery is best possible using advanced and powerful third-party applications, known as PST recovery software.

The applications are powerful enough to thoroughly scan entire PST file and extract all damaged and inaccessible items from it. The PST recovery tool has interactive graphical user interface to offer easy recovery.

Outlook PST Repair is the most advanced and comprehensive utility that successfully repairs and restores damaged PST file in all scenarios. It works well with Microsoft Outlook 2010, 2007, 2003, 2002, and 2000. The software restores all PST file objects, such as emails, notes, contacts, tasks, and attachments.