How to Rebuild Outlook PST Database File?

An outlook PST file is similar to a database where all outlook accessible items- emails, notes, tasks, contact, journals and other are arranged in a systematic manner. Comprising of most important & almost day to day used data as emails, contact & schedules it is time & again loaded by users. Its continuous processing adds to the size of the file, which is one among the reasons for the file to get corrupt & become inaccessible. Since PST data is vital for organization concerned every possible step to rebuild outlook PST data file is taken. Also, as the process is not so difficult, it is quite ensured to have it rebuilt in most of the corruption & like PST problems faced.

Every now & then, while attempting to access data from outlook PST one or the other erroneous instance is perceived that in turn would make your file inaccessible rather unusable. These may be on account of numerous reasons viz. virus infection, application error & bugs, improper usage & others. However, irrespective of the cause concerned it is essentially required to rebuild outlook database.

Steps to rebuild outlook PST file –

1. Browse & locate the outlook personal folder file or you can search for the same using Windows system included search feature. All you need to do is specify the file name in the search dialog box and location to be looked in. Within some time the file will be searched or say located and you can note down the file location from there. Additionally, it is recommended to have your file backed up, as it is said in all such cases of repair & rebuild. Particularly since, any thing uncertain may happen & if this is yours case it would be possible for you to have restore done from backup & have access to original data items.
2. Now, the scanpst.exe file i.e. the inbox repair tool need to be searched from within outlook installation. Two things that you need to keep in mind when searching for the tool is that its location is different for different version of outlook application as well as for Windows system. Besides, this ensure that show & include hidden file's option is turned on when searching the file, it otherwise may not be located by Windows search.
3. Following this load the utility to rebuild outlook PST data by double clicking the file, now browse within & locate the PST to be scanned. Thereafter, begin scanning the file. It will report the errors existent & those can be fixed at once with the repair option chosen.

After the above specified process has been completed, open outlook & create a new data file by choosing ‘create data file' option from file menu. From the scan results of inbox repair tool, you will find a folder named ‘lost & found' which comprises of recovered items & information from rebuilt Outlook PST. The data items from that very folder has to be dragged to the new outlook data file i.e. data from rebuild outlook PST folder can now be used as required.