inbox tool repair lost most recent 2 mos of emails

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Short Version: After trying to access a .pst file from a cd, outlook 2003
asked me to scan the file with the inbox repair tool. Now all email from
January 20, 06 -March 23, 06 has disappeared. Everything else, files and
folders back to 1996 is all there apparently. [I also now have two personal
folders which I will try to deal with later.] Have I lost those sent and
received emails for good?

Long version: After discovering a trojan in my old desktop, I backed up
everything onto cd's. I have scanned and rescanned everything for viruses.
I copied the old outlook (ol2000, I think) files onto the disks as .pst
files. When I tried to access them with Outlook 2003 on my new laptop, I got
an error asking me to run the scanpst.exe, which I did. The file was only
about 600,000 bytes.

Then, after installing xp and office xp on the old desktop, I tried to
retrieve the same outlook data directly from the old location on the hard
drive and was asked to do the same repair. Now the files on both computers
no longer have those crucial months of emails. I do still have 2 copies of
the unadulterated cd's, though.
 
You cannot access a pst located on a cd.
Copy to hd (any location) remove read only flag, then in OL File/open and
browse to location.
If it cannot be opened, and after running repair tool on it, there are still
problems, then likely the pst on the cd is corrupt.
Probably caused by using the Export option for the origonal pst rather than
a simple copy
 
Thanks. Unfortunately that wouldn't explain the other similar problem. After
I (re)installed xp and office xp on the desktop, I lost the same 2mos of
emails when I tried to retrieve the original data on the hard drive with
Outlook 2003 and was prompted to run the inbox repair tool. Any other ideas?

DL said:
You cannot access a pst located on a cd.
Copy to hd (any location) remove read only flag, then in OL File/open and
browse to location.
If it cannot be opened, and after running repair tool on it, there are still
problems, then likely the pst on the cd is corrupt.
Probably caused by using the Export option for the origonal pst rather than
a simple copy

tom said:
Short Version: After trying to access a .pst file from a cd, outlook 2003
asked me to scan the file with the inbox repair tool. Now all email from
January 20, 06 -March 23, 06 has disappeared. Everything else, files and
folders back to 1996 is all there apparently. [I also now have two personal
folders which I will try to deal with later.] Have I lost those sent and
received emails for good?

Long version: After discovering a trojan in my old desktop, I backed up
everything onto cd's. I have scanned and rescanned everything for viruses.
I copied the old outlook (ol2000, I think) files onto the disks as .pst
files. When I tried to access them with Outlook 2003 on my new laptop, I got
an error asking me to run the scanpst.exe, which I did. The file was only
about 600,000 bytes.

Then, after installing xp and office xp on the old desktop, I tried to
retrieve the same outlook data directly from the old location on the hard
drive and was asked to do the same repair. Now the files on both computers
no longer have those crucial months of emails. I do still have 2 copies of
the unadulterated cd's, though.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
On the old installation you did a simple File/Open within OL and didnt
import?
When you ran the repair tool did it actually find/report any errors?

tom said:
Thanks. Unfortunately that wouldn't explain the other similar problem. After
I (re)installed xp and office xp on the desktop, I lost the same 2mos of
emails when I tried to retrieve the original data on the hard drive with
Outlook 2003 and was prompted to run the inbox repair tool. Any other ideas?

DL said:
You cannot access a pst located on a cd.
Copy to hd (any location) remove read only flag, then in OL File/open and
browse to location.
If it cannot be opened, and after running repair tool on it, there are still
problems, then likely the pst on the cd is corrupt.
Probably caused by using the Export option for the origonal pst rather than
a simple copy

tom said:
Short Version: After trying to access a .pst file from a cd, outlook 2003
asked me to scan the file with the inbox repair tool. Now all email from
January 20, 06 -March 23, 06 has disappeared. Everything else, files and
folders back to 1996 is all there apparently. [I also now have two personal
folders which I will try to deal with later.] Have I lost those sent and
received emails for good?

Long version: After discovering a trojan in my old desktop, I backed up
everything onto cd's. I have scanned and rescanned everything for viruses.
I copied the old outlook (ol2000, I think) files onto the disks as ..pst
files. When I tried to access them with Outlook 2003 on my new
Click to expand...
laptop, I
got
an error asking me to run the scanpst.exe, which I did. The file was only
about 600,000 bytes.

Then, after installing xp and office xp on the old desktop, I tried to
retrieve the same outlook data directly from the old location on the hard
drive and was asked to do the same repair. Now the files on both computers
no longer have those crucial months of emails. I do still have 2
Click to expand...
copies
of
the unadulterated cd's, though.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
tom said:
Thanks. Unfortunately that wouldn't explain the other similar
problem. After I (re)installed xp and office xp on the desktop, I
lost the same 2mos of emails when I tried to retrieve the original
data on the hard drive with Outlook 2003 and was prompted to run the
inbox repair tool. Any other ideas?
Click to expand...

Then most likely the data was missing when the PST was copied to the CD.
 
To the best of my recollection I copied rather than import/export. I remember
watvching the series of eight stages, but do not remember whether there were
specific indications of corruption. To answer Brian, the emails were active
and accessible on the hard drive when I copied them to the cd.

Is there any way to "look" at the data on the cd to see if those emails are
actually there or not?
 
If you copied a pst there is only the default win copy dialogue.
If OL was open when you did the copy process the pst will likely be corrupt
If there were 8 stages in the process it was likely an export, which can
often cause problems.
The pst cannot be viewed on a cd
An OL2003 format pst cannot be opened in earlier version of OL.

If your pst is still in place on the old installation, and by using
File/Open within OL still results in an error msg, then it would seem that
your origonal pst is corrupt.
 
tom said:
To the best of my recollection I copied rather than import/export. I
remember watvching the series of eight stages, but do not remember
whether there were specific indications of corruption. To answer
Brian, the emails were active and accessible on the hard drive when I
copied them to the cd.
Click to expand...

Was Outlook open?
Is there any way to "look" at the data on the cd to see if those
emails are actually there or not?
Click to expand...

I always test a PST I burn to CD _before_ relying on it by copying it back
to the hard drive and opening it.
 
I am fairly certain Oulook was open when I copied the files to cd. I
wouldn't have known to close it before copying. But it is obviously good
advice.

I am going to try and copy the pst to the new laptop hard drive then access
it from the new location - rather than access it from the cd - and see what
happens.
 
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