OST file is the twin of user mailbox stored on the Exchange Server. OST files make it possible for Outlook users to access their mailbox data in the absence of Exchange Server. All the emails, contacts, notes, tasks, journals, calendar entries and attachments are stored on the local machine that enables working in offline mode.
OST file is a vital data source for its user. Everytime the connection with the Exchange Server is established, the OST file synchronizes with the server mailbox and the work done offline is updated. OST files are required to work in the absence of Exchange Server which can be triggered by many factors, such as, Exchange Server downtime, network connection issues, Exchange maintenance or upgrade etc.
Over time the Outlook OST file grows in size. Since, in the earlier versions of MS Outlook the maximum file size for OST file was 2 GB, these files would soon outgrow the maximum permissible limit and become corrupt. To overcome this shortcomming, in the later versions of Outlook the default OST size limit was increased from 20 GB (Outlook 2003/2007) to 50 GB (Outlook 2010).
Another point of concern is that the OST file is stored on the user's computer and any sort of virus attack on the system or bad sectors on the storage drive can lead to the corruption in the OST file. There are end number of known and unknown factors that can cause corruption in the Outlook OST file. Keeping this in mind, Microsoft has provided the Inbox Repair Tool to repair the corrupt or damaged OST file. But this tool is not capable to repair the affected file in almost all the cases.
When the corruption degree is too high, professional tools are required to perform Outlook OST Recovery. The perfect fix for OST file corruption is to convert OST to PST and recover all the vital data using third party tools. A corrupt or damaged OST file is lost and becomes unusable. By converting it into a usable PST file, the data can be recovered hassle free.
One of the preeminent tools is “Stellar Phoenix OST to PST Converter”. This dexterous utility converts the severly damaged OST files to PST and recovers all the emails, attachments, appointments, contacts, notes, tasks and calendar entries intact. The software preserves the original RTF and HTML formatting of the messages while converting. This adroit tool to convert OST to PST is compatible with MS Outlook 2010, 2007, 2003, 2002 and 2000.
