HDD Crash and Recovering Backed-Up Outlook 2007

  • Thread starter Thread starter Joe Teixeira
  • Start date Start date
J

Joe Teixeira

This problem has been haunting me for years but now has become a crisis.
I've been dutifully backing up Outlook.pst to an external HDD. I had a HDD
crash last night and data on the drive was unable to be recovered, no
problem, I have a back up. I tried to import the backup.pst tonight and it
is prompting me for a password. I know, for certain, that I didn't set a
password for this file. What's going on?
 
How did you create the backup?
You dont Import a pst, within Outlook you open it (File>Open>Data File)
You might want to copy your backup.pst to Documents folder first
 
I instructed the Maxtor Backup Manager to back up that file. The file was
copied to my E:\ (external hdd). Per your instruction, I copied the file the
the Documents folder, then tried to open it using File>Open>Data File. I
received a dialog box titled Personal Folders Password, Type the Password
for backup.pst.
OK - Cancel. I tried hitting Enter. It didn't work.
Joe
 
Try these;
1) In explorer ensure the backup is not marked read only
2) search to include hidden for scanpst.exe and run it aginst the backup to
see what it reports
Then;
3) Does your Maxtor backup utility have an option to restore the backup
file, if so restore it to a folder within Documents (*Not* the origonal
location), then try to open that within Outlook

I suspect that niether of the above will resolve your problem and that the
origonal backup failed, perhaps due to outllook not being fully closed when
the backup ran.
 
This problem has been haunting me for years but now has become a crisis.
I've been dutifully backing up Outlook.pst to an external HDD. I had a HDD
crash last night and data on the drive was unable to be recovered, no
problem, I have a back up. I tried to import the backup.pst tonight and it
is prompting me for a password. I know, for certain, that I didn't set a
password for this file. What's going on?
Click to expand...

This is a fairly conclusive sign that your backup program, whatever it is,
doesn't handle PSTs properly and had ruined it. If your backup runs while
Outlook is open, that's probably why.
 
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