Pfbackup corrupts psts.

  • Thread starter Thread starter Celtic
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Celtic

Hi guys, for the last several months the company has been using
pfbackup to backup our outlook 2000 pst files to a NAS server. This
week one of the owners lost some emails and wanted to recover from the
backup. It failed. I checked the pst files from a dozen or so other
users and they are all corruted on the server. When I try to open the
files, either using pfbackup or open pst file, I get the messges :

Properties for this information service need to be defined prior to
use

and then

The file .... is not a personal folders file.

I have tried scanpst and several demo pst repair programs but these
have't worked. I have tried opening the pst files in outlook 2000,
2003 & 2007 and still they dont open. The files are not read only so
thats not the problem either.

Is there anything that can be done to recover these emails the boss is
going spare.

Many regards

Martin
 
Celtic said:
Hi guys, for the last several months the company has been using
pfbackup to backup our outlook 2000 pst files to a NAS server. This
week one of the owners lost some emails and wanted to recover from the
backup. It failed. I checked the pst files from a dozen or so other
users and they are all corruted on the server. When I try to open the
files, either using pfbackup or open pst file, I get the messges :

Properties for this information service need to be defined prior to
use

and then

The file .... is not a personal folders file.

I have tried scanpst and several demo pst repair programs but these
have't worked. I have tried opening the pst files in outlook 2000,
2003 & 2007 and still they dont open. The files are not read only so
thats not the problem either.

Is there anything that can be done to recover these emails the boss is
going spare.
Click to expand...

if you are trying to open the pst files from the server location, then that
might be the problem. try copying a backup file to the local HDD, remove any
read-only attribute, and try opening it from there.
 
Hiya, I have tried that by copying it to the local c drive and checked
the read flag, its the same as on the server, not read only
protecteced and I have full security rights to it as administrator.

Thanks

Martin
 
Celtic said:
Hiya, I have tried that by copying it to the local c drive and checked
the read flag, its the same as on the server, not read only
protecteced and I have full security rights to it as administrator.
Click to expand...

Clearly pfbackup is not the culprit here, since many of us use it with no
problems whatsoever. Describe in detail the entire process you use.
 
Hiya, pfbackup is installed on about a dozen power users outlook 2000.
I have set it to remind the user that they are to back up their file
every 15 days. When the user gets the message from pfbackup they
press the "save backup" button which then saves to the NAS server.
This has been going on for several months. When one of the bosses
found he had deleted a load of emails by accident I went into outlook
pfbackup and tried the "open backup" and i get the message :

The personal folders file (.pst) .... could not be opened. The file
may not be compatible with this version of outlook or it may be
corrupted.

If I try the File Open Pst way or the import file I get the messages I
mentioned previously.

Any pst that I have copied to the server without the pfbackup opens
fine, its just that none of the backups from any of the 12 users can
be opened.

Any further suggestions?

Thanks

Martin
 
Celtic said:
Hi guys, for the last several months the company has been using
pfbackup to backup our outlook 2000 pst files to a NAS server. This
week one of the owners lost some emails and wanted to recover from the
backup. It failed. I checked the pst files from a dozen or so other
users and they are all corruted on the server. When I try to open the
files, either using pfbackup or open pst file, I get the messges :

Properties for this information service need to be defined prior to
use

and then

The file .... is not a personal folders file.

I have tried scanpst and several demo pst repair programs but these
have't worked. I have tried opening the pst files in outlook 2000,
2003 & 2007 and still they dont open. The files are not read only so
thats not the problem either.

Is there anything that can be done to recover these emails the boss is
going spare.

Many regards

Martin
Click to expand...


Dear Martin, there is something wrong with PFBACKUP. I used it for
many years without any problem, fortunately, with only a very seldom
need for restoring the backups created by it.

But a month ago, I detected that the size of the backup files created
by PFBACKUP were very different to the original ones (which they are
quite large, indeed). So, I undeleted it, and I replaced it by a
simple BAT file with the old MsDos COPY command. However, I should be
sure that I run this BAT file when Outlook is not working.


Thanks
Juan I. Cahis
Santiago de Chile (South America)
Note: Please forgive me for my bad English, I am trying to improve it!
 
Most likely it has something to do with backing up to a remote drive -
network usages is not supported and often results in corrupt data.
 
Sorry, I meant "Uninstall it" instead of "Undelete it"!!!

Juan I. Cahis said:
Dear Martin, there is something wrong with PFBACKUP. I used it for
many years without any problem, fortunately, with only a very seldom
need for restoring the backups created by it.

But a month ago, I detected that the size of the backup files created
by PFBACKUP were very different to the original ones (which they are
quite large, indeed). So, I undeleted it, and I replaced it by a
simple BAT file with the old MsDos COPY command. However, I should be
sure that I run this BAT file when Outlook is not working.


Thanks
Juan I. Cahis
Santiago de Chile (South America)
Note: Please forgive me for my bad English, I am trying to improve it!
Click to expand...
Thanks
Juan I. Cahis
Santiago de Chile (South America)
Note: Please forgive me for my bad English, I am trying to improve it!
 
Celtic said:
Any pst that I have copied to the server without the pfbackup opens
fine, its just that none of the backups from any of the 12 users can
be opened.
Click to expand...

All does, as base, if a copy of the PST. It doesn't process it in any way,
as far as I can tell, so I can't think of anything that would cause what you
see. Before clicking "Save backup", click Options and give the target a new
name. Then click "Save backup" and see if the PST created behaves.
 
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