Hardware errors in Outlook PST file are one of the major ground for corruption of .pst file. Any physical damage to your computer system, hard disk failure, the fault in network devices like routers or problems in a device due to power failure can cause the corruption of Outlook PST File. All these issues can affect the normal working of Outlook and it may stop responding. In addition, the presence of bad sectors in the hard disk is one of the common issues which are responsible for the corruption of .pst file. Thus it becomes essential to repair PST file with an appropriate method or a utility.
To understand the issue in detail, let’s consider a scenario. Suppose the hard disk of your laptop crashed. But after performing some recovery steps you succeed to recover the disk and start working again. But when you tried to access Outlook application then it doesn’t open. The reason due to which Outlook is not working is the corruption of .pst file and the culprit is the bad sectors on the hard disk. As the Outlook .pst file is stored in these bad hard disk sectors so it also gets damaged and may consist of several errors.
Resolution :
As PST file is liable for the smooth working of Outlook, so it becomes essential to explore and apply the ways through which PST file can be recovered. For removing the bad sectors, a hard disk recovery tool can be used but sometimes it may result in partial or complete data loss. Apart from this, to repair and recover .pst file there are other utilities which can be used. Primarily there are two types of Outlook repair tools which can be used and described as below :
1. Inbox Repair Tool (Scanpst.exe): A free Microsoft Outlook inbuilt utility that scans and repairs the corrupt .pst file. The location of Inbox repair tool differs as per the Outlook versions. Run the scanpst.exe from its location, scan the .pst file and repair it if any errors are reported. However, there are certain limitations with this tool; like it can not repair the PST file which exceeds 2 GB size and also it can repair only the header part of the file.
2. Third Party PST Repair Tool: When scanpst.exe fails to repair the file due to its limitations, then to regain access to all your vital Outlook PST file data a third party Outlook Repair tool can be used to repair pst file. Stellar Repair for Outlook is a competent tool which specializes in repairing and recovering the corrupt .pst file. With the incomparable features like the recovery of selected folders, preview of objects before recovery and compatibility with latest Windows versions like Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista, XP, 2000 and NT, the software works in a remarkable way.
A user can use any of the above-mentioned tools, but the recovery of .pst file depends upon the level of corruption in .pst file. If the corruption is low then ScanPST.exe may work successfully. However, if there is severe corruption then a third party outlook pst repair tool will definitely fix all the errors in .pst file.