Microsoft Outlook provides excellent mailing service and is the top third popular email client among computer users around the globe. The mail information in Outlook will get saved in .pst (Personal Storage Table) file format by default if Outlook is working in online mode. Whereas, Outlook that is configured to work in offline mode will save all mail data in .ost (Offline Storage table or Offline Folder) file, which is a duplicate copy of your mailbox from Exchange Server.
Unfortunately, Outlook PST and OST data files can become vulnerable when any of the instances mentioned below occur:
- Trying to open particular Profile when Outlook is wrongly configured or upgraded
- Missing of Outlook application related files from system hard drive that causes sudden hanging or freezing of application
- Entry of severe malware when anti-virus program on system is out of date
- Interrupted synchronous of mail data between OST and Exchange Server mailbox
- Slow response in loading Outlook Profile due to increased size of PST and OST files
- Inappropriate export or import of Outlook data files
In most of these instances Outlook files may get damaged, due to which Outlook may stop showing mail data further. At worse, users might even encounter various error messages on Outlook and thereby complete inaccessibility of mail data.
To resolve this kind of issues with PST and OST files, Microsoft introduced in-built tools called Inbox Repair Tool, ScanPST and Integrity Check Tool, ScanOST available within Microsoft Office suite.
ScanPST – Inbox Repair Tool
This Inbox Repair tool developed by Microsoft can be used to resolve issues with both .pst as well as .ost files (unless it is synchronization error with OST). It neatly scans affected Outlook file and extracts all components that are inaccessible from that chosen file and creates a new .bak file. This file can then be renamed with .pst extension like bak.pst and imported back into Outlook so that all inaccessible contents of Personal folder file can be accessed easily.
ScanOST – Integrity Check Tool
Scanost.exe is a utility that runs only on OST files of Outlook to majorly diagnose and repair synchronization errors. It compares objects from corrupt .ost file with Exchange Server mailbox and attempts to resolve synchronization issues between them.
Locating ScanPST and ScanOST in your systems:
The default location of each of these inbuilt tools differ according to Outlook edition and Windows OS versions. Both Scanpst.exe and Scanost.exe are located in same folder on system hard drive and to know the default locations in different Outlook versions and Windows OS, you can visit this link.
Note: Use ‘Search’ option within specified default location if you are unable to see these repair tools.
How to run scanpst.exe and scanost.exe in Outlook?
ScanPST can be run when there is no internet connection. You can go through the steps mentioned here to run ScanPST tool against damaged PST / OST file (The link also gives information about how to create new OST file without having to run ScanOST). However, if you want to run ScanOST tool against OST file, you have to be connected with Exchange Server so that the utility has access to mailbox saved in Server. And, here are the steps required to run scanost.exe:
Step 1: Close Outlook if opened and locate Scanost.exe
Step 2: Double-click on scanost.exe; when it shows a dialogue box to choose required Profile whose OST file has to be scanned, select the required one.
Step 3: If it prompts a window to select between Work offline or Connect options, click on Connect
Step 4: Go through the options carefully and select applicable ones; then check the box against Repair Errors and hit on Begin Scan option.
Sometimes, running these incredible repair tools to fix PST and OST files on Outlook may not fetch successful results. In such cases, you can gladly make use of any third party tools to repair Outlook data files safe and securely.
Tech with Ease 