How would you feel if an Outlook repair tool actually lost more of your data? Well, it does happen, probably every day…
If you use Outlook all the time, it’s easy to forget just how much you depend on it for emails, contacts and calendar appointments. The scary part is how Outlook stores your precious emails and attachments in a complex, fragile “.PST file” or “Personal Folder” that is very prone to accidental damage even in routine day to day use.
The end result is an incomprehensible technical error message from Outlook. After the initial disbelief that your emails are gone, you frantically scour the web to find a fix for the problem, all the while hoping your emails can be recovered.
Bad News: Microsoft’s Inbox Repair Tool Can Lose More Data…
Microsoft does provide an Inbox Repair Tool, called SCANPST.EXE, which can help in some limited cases where Outlook repair is needed. But often it actually makes the problem worse by further damaging the .PST file, losing data that could have been recovered. I know this may be hard to believe, but the priority for this tool is to simply let you access your .PST file, and it “thinks” that’s the priority, even if it means wiping out a lot of important emails. (The word “overkill” springs to mind for some reason…)
Another trap for the unwary: if your .PST was nearing 2 GB in size, the Microsoft tool will consider it “oversized” and refuse to work anyway - though perhaps that’s actually a blessing in disguise.
In any case, Microsoft makes it quite hard to find this tool on your hard disk - this is actually a good thing, as it means a ton of people are saved from trashing a perfectly fixable .PST file.
Some Good News: More Competent Tools Do Exist
Fortunately for all of us, a number of enterprising software developers have written specialist programs known as Outlook Repair Tools. Although they do involve paying for the tool, they are very good at what they do.
In many, many cases they can recover all of your emails, and in most other cases they can recover the vast majority. They also cover calendar details, contact information, and so on, and they handle the full range of Outlook PST errors including where the the .PST is over 2 GB in size.
You don’t have to be a technical whizz-kid to use these repair programs, either - they are a lot simpler than Outlook as they only do one thing. These tools are also very safe, as they always make a backup copy of the .PST before attempting the recovery.
The One Way Bet: No Recovery, No Charge
Most of these Outlook recovery tools work on “try before you buy” model: you download and install the program, and set it to work on recovering your damaged emails and attachments. The recovery tool shows you the subject line, sender and date/time of the emails it can “see” in the file, then lets you review what it has found.
Only then, after you have seen that it can recover the emails that are most valuable to you, do you pay for the tool so that it can actually do the PST file repair. You can pay online and receive an electronic license key immediately, which you can then use to finish the PST recovery process.
If you aren’t happy for whatever reason, most tools also come with a guarantee providing a no-questions-asked refund if required. So they are really a safe bet - you either get your data recovered, or your money back.
Which Outlook Repair Tool Should You Use?
There are quite a lot of PST repair products on the market, but the one I know and recommend from personal experience is Stellar Outlook PST Repair.
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