What to do if Inbox Repair tool fails to repair the corrupt PST?

PST files are of vital importance to an Outlook user. Any kind of corruption to the PST file will hamper the proper functioning of Outlook client. So, technical experts always advise to take regular backups of PST file. In case of any data loss, the data can be imported from the backup files.

The most panicking situation arises for the user, when he doesn’t have any backup copy and have lost access to the PST file data due to corruption. Luckily, Outlook has provided free inbuilt tools to repair the corrupt PST. You can easily repair the corrupt PST file with the help of Inbox Repair tool (Scanpst.exe). But sometimes, this tool fails to repair the corrupt PST files due to several limitations and it may also prompt some error messages indicating the failure of the PST repair.

Some situations in which Inbox repair tool fails to repair corrupt PST:

• It cannot repair the PST file that is 2 GB or exceeds the 2GB limit).
• It cannot resole the Outlook error message: Unknown error “80040801”.
• It can only resolve minor corruption such as PST files Header corruption related issues.
• It fails to repair the PST file if the corruption level is severe.
• You cannot recover the accidentally or intentionally deleted Outlook emails
• It fails to recover encrypted or password protected PST files
• Or if you have forgot the login information for the PST file, Inbox Repair tool can’t help you to repair the corrupt PST file
• Sometimes, it may take a long time to repair the corrupt PST file.
• Sometimes it fails to detect the corruption issue after scan but the Outlook still complains.

When Inbox repair tool fails to repair the corrupt PST file then, You may face any of the following errors:

• The Inbox Repair Tool does not recognize the file xxxx.pst...
• An unexpected error prevented access to this file. Use ScanDisk to check the disk for errors, and then try using the Inbox Repair tool again.
• Inbox Repair Tool (Scanpst.exe) hangs endlessly and does not perform the repair.
• The PST file fixed by Inbox Repair Tool (Scanpst) is empty or does not contain the wanted items.
• Sometimes the Inbox Repair Tool fails due to some internal system error. In such situation you will get the error message:

“Internal errors were found in this file. They must be repaired for this  file to work correctly”.

• When you try to open a PST file more than 2 GB (MS Outlook 2002 and previous versions) you may face the error message: “Properties for this information service must be defined prior to use” 

If you try to fix this PST issue using Inbox Repair Tool then, it will fail and gives the error:

“An error has occurred which caused the scan to be stopped. No changes have been made to the scanned file.”

• Other common error message indicating the failure of Inbox Repair Tool are: 
• PST can't be accessed
• Unknown error 0x8004018 has occurred
• Client error: 0x80040600 has occurred
• Not able to find.PST file
• File path cannot be found

Though, Inbox repair tool is a great utility but the user is helpless if it can’t recover the file.

If Inbox repair fails to repair the corrupt PST then, user need to find some alternative “PST repair software”.

Visit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4btbQSWvJkA

There a lot of PST repair software available online along with Demo version. Different PST repair software varies from each other in price as well as the offered feature-set. In such situation, the user needs to make a wise choice and find the best one that suits his needs as well as budget.