Common OST Corruption Errors and Efficient Way to Rectify Them

There are times when your Outlook OST (Outlook Storage Table) file gets corrupt, or becomes inaccessible, or fails to synchronize due to various reasons like Exchange Server crash, virus infection, down Exchange Server, oversized OST file, etc. Generally, in all these situations you get an error message indicating the corruption of OST file. However, you can get over these error messages and thus get back the accessibility of your OST file with the help of an efficient third-party OST to PST converter software.

Let’s see common error messages which a user gets when his/her OST file gets corrupt or becomes inaccessible:

“Unable to expand the folder. The set of folders could not be opened. Errors could have been detected in the file xyz.ost. Quit all mail-enabled applications, and then use the Inbox Repair Tool”
“Cannot open your default email folders. The file xyz.ost is not an offline folder file.”
“This message could not be sent. Try sending the message again later, or contact your network administrator. Error is [0x80040111-00000000-00000000]”
“Errors in background synchronization. In most cases, more information is available in a synchronization log in the Deleted Items folder.”
“Errors have been detected in the file. Quit all mail-enabled applications, and then use the Inbox Repair Tool”
“Task 'Microsoft Exchange Server - Sending' reported error (0x8004060C): 'The message store has reached its maximum size. To reduce the amount of data in this message store, select some items that you no longer need, and permanently delete them.”

The best way to rectify any of the above mentioned errors and to get back your crucial Outlook data saved on OST file is use of third-party OST to PST converter software. These tools fix the damage or corruption in OST file and convert it to importable PST file. One of the efficient and highly recommended software in this category is OST to PST Converter.

The efficient software easily converts corrupt or orphaned OST file to easily installable PST file additionally it restores emails, attachments, contacts, notes, etc as well as preserves the formatting of the HTML and RTF messages. The OST 2 PST Converter software shows the preview of all recoverable items before converting the OST file to usable PST file. Moreover the software saves the converted OST file at your desired location.

Therefore, to analyze the working of the software, you can download its free demo version. The free demo version provides the preview of the converted user mailbox items as separate PSTs. To save these converted individual PST files, you have to register the product.

Convert OST to PST to access corrupt or orphaned OST file

Enterprises require a collaborative communication environment. For this, Microsoft Exchange Server and Microsoft Outlook work in conjunction. Since, some users might be working off-site where the connectivity with the company's Exchange Server can not be established, MS Outlook has the ability to work in Cached Exchange Mode.

The Offline mode or Cached Exchange mode Outlook creates a copy of the Exchange Server maibox onto the local machine and carries out the operations on the local drive. This is possible with the help of OST files. In order to send and receive new emails, and to update the Server mailbox with all the offline work synchronization is done between the Exchange Server and MS Outlook.

This synchronization can fail at times in lieu of unforeseen factors such as hard drive failure, attack by a virus or malicious software, abrupt system shutdown, improper Outlook termination or poor network connection. Failed or erronous synchronization will make the OST file inaccessible.

Moreover, accidental deletion of Exchange Server mailbox or any modification to the Exchange profile will render the Outlook OST file as orphaned. A corrupt or orphaned OST file becomes unusable causing loss of significant data such as vital emails, contacts and appointments.

A corrupt or damaged OST file needs to be repaired to make it accessible again. An inbuilt utility by Microsoft is the Inbox Repair Tool (Scanost) by Microsoft. This tool will scan the OST file, checking for all sorts of errors and corruption and repairs it. A major drawback associated with this utility is that it restructures the entire OST file and removes all those elements that become unreadable due to corruption. This means, cardinal information can be lost.

To carry out safe and error free OST recovery, one needs to Convert OST to PST. To Convert OST to PST, third party tools are available that support almost all major versions of MS Outlook and MS Exchange Server. By converting OST to PST the software will scan the OST file in question and recover all the items into a usable and Outlook importable PST file.

All the user mailbox items such as emails, contacts, notes, tasks, journals and calendar entries can be recovered as a new PST file. The userr also has the option to append recovered data into an exisitng PST file. One such amazing utility is “OST to PST Converter”. This product is the choice of millions of users across the globe to Convert OST to PST. The software is compatible with MS Outlook 2010, 2007, 2003, 2002 and 2000.

A Real-time Scenario of Outlook Mail Data Loss and How to Easily Extract OST Objects to a PST File

I was using Outlook 2007 on my client computer. I had tons of contacts, emails, calendar entries in my Outlook data file. I was able to log on to the domain till last week. But there were problems with the login a few days back. So, I deleted my domain user account in the Active Directory and recreated a new account having the same name. I probably thought that the new account will automatically take the properties of the old one. It was now that I ran into a number of other profile issues and came to know that the Exchange was not running. When I started Outlook with the new account, it tried to create a new user profile and connect to the Exchange Server. But it did not succeed. It seemed that I had lost all my vital Outlook mail data.

I was not able to connect the old mailbox to the new account somehow. This issue possibly had one solution and that was converting the Outlook OST file to a PST file. Then, creating a new profile and getting all data in this profile. But this wasn't an easy job. I had to rigorously search for an efficient third-party OST to PST Converter software that would do the trick for me. I had already run the demo versions of various products, but none of them assured a complete conversion. I decided to contact a 'System Admin' for a quick fix to this. I narrated the whole problem to him. He doubted that my file was damaged as some of the tools had already failed to convert it. He suggested me to use an advance OST to PST Converter. He had a similar problem in the past with one of the employee's OST file and this utility was really helpful.

I took his advice and purchased this software after checking out its demo version. To my delight, the tool did it another time. It helped me quickly overcome this problem by safely extracting all objects in the file and restoring them to a new equivalent PST file. It allowed me to convert important messages, contacts, notes, journal, etc. without any slightest change in their original formatting and structure. I got all my emails back with their exact key properties, such as ''To', 'From', 'Subject', etc. Using this advanced OST Recovery tool, I also saved some of my emails as individual EML files in the system.

OST to PST Converter- Resolve for OST file corruption

It happens often that the MS Outlook users loose connection with the Exchange Server. Several times users need to work from client side, from home or out of office. This is where they loose connectivity with the MS Exchange Server. But their work never halts.

That is the beauty of Outlook OST file that allows its users to work in the offline mode, ie, in the absence of Microsoft Exchange. Outlook OST file privileges the users to work on their user mailbox items in a non Exchange environment.

However, there are many chances of OST file corruption that will make all the data unusable. The OST file once corrupted will not synchronize with the Exchange Server and the data stored in the file will remain inaccessible. A number of error messages are encountered by the Outlook users when their OST file gets corrupt. No matter how many attempts they make to access the file, the same error message will flash on the screen.

Once corrupted, the OST file in question needs to be repaired using Outlook OST Recovery measures. Microsoft has provided a free inbuilt utility Scanost.exe that can scan and fix the OST file when it becomes corrupt. Common causes of OST file corruption are virus attack, synchronization error, hardware or software malfunction, abrupt Outlook termination, power outage and more.

Though some of the known factors behind Outlook OST corruption can be avoided, but there are several other known factors that can render your OST file corrupt and beyond usage. Scanost.exe ca help in Outlook OST Recovery by repairing the corrupt or damaged OST file. But, there is a catch.

Scanost deleted the corrupted data from the OST file and rebuilds it. This creates a huge possibility of vital data loss, such as important emails or contacts. Moreover, Scanost is not able to recover data when the degree of corruption is quite high. At times like this, third party OST to PST Converter tools can help recover all the user mailbox data from the corrupt OST file.

A reliable utility is “OST to PST Converter”. The software can recover all the emails, contacts, calendar entries, notes, attachments, appointments, tasks and journals from the corrupt or damaged OST file and creates a new usable PST file at a user specified location. This adroit utility supports MS Outlook 2010, 2007, 2003, 2002 and 2000. The software preserves the data formatting while conversion. The log report of the entire process is generated and can be used for future reference.

The finest techniques to effortlessly extract data from unusable or orphaned Offline Folders file

Offline Folders (OST) file plays a pivotal role when working in an Exchange environment integrated with MS Outlook. An OST file is automatically created when you work in the MS Outlook offline mode. This file is saved as a local file in your system and contains a backup of all the Exchange mailbox data. They are beneficial in Exchange downtime situations when you do not have access to your mailbox on the server. All changes made to the OST file while working offline are synchronized when you connect to the Exchange server. However, if the Exchange administrator accidentally deletes your mailbox on the server, then the OST file will become orphaned. In such circumstances, you can easily get back all your lost data by performing reliable Outlook OST to PST conversion.

Besides deletion of user mailbox, there are a plethora of reasons that bring forth the need to convert Outlook OST to PST. You may occasionally run across various mailbox corruption cases that could make all your Exchange data inaccessible. This may happen due to several factors, such as virus attacks, upgrading from old to new server, rebuilding information stores in Exchange server, unexpected server shutdowns, software malfunctioning or hardware failures. The OST files act as a replica of your mailbox and help you regain access to your inaccessible information in the event of such disasters. You can convert Outlook OST to PST and import that PST back into your Exchange server information stores.

MS Outlook has a provision to copy emails in your OST file to a PST file. To do this, you need to start the application in offline mode and add a service named ‘Personal Folders (PST)’. After adding this service, select the emails that you need to copy and click ‘Copy’ on the ‘File’ menu. In the ‘Copy Items’ dialog box, specify the Personal Folders that you created recently. You need to repeat the process for copying emails in each mail folder. Finally, you can import these copied messages to a new server-based mailbox.

Another method that appears to be more safe and reliable is to use advanced OST2PST Converter tools. These third-party software can effectively extract data from orphaned OST files and restore it to an equivalent Outlook PST. They can easily convert all OST objects, including emails, calendar entries, contacts, notes, attachments, journals, etc. Moreover, they have support for all the latest Outlook versions, i.e. MS Outlook 2010, 2007, 2003, 2002, and 2000.