Hi there,

I recently opened my Outlook (I'm using Win XP) as I usually do every day, but this time it wouldn't open, saying something like: "Microsoft Outlook cannot open, ...Outlook1.pst is not a valid personal address file." I couldn't understand how this could be as I didn't think I'd done anything different or anything else between using the PC one day and the next.

I eventually managed to get Outlook to open by clicking on files in the Application Data/Microsoft/Outlook folder, but my inbox still wouldn't open. I then did a search for "Outlook" and found two .pst files - one called "Outlook.pst", which was about 22,000KB, and another new one called "Outlook1.pst" with 0KB. I imported the former into my inbox, and received some of my old messages - dating back from 2002, but none at all from 2004.

Why did the personal address file suddenly change, and where are all my messages? Could it be a virus? I would be really grateful if, firstly, someone could explain what could make this happen, and secondly, advise me on how to find the file with my recent messages in.

Regards

Sam

Open Outlook and it should have your mailbox (including Inbox, Sent Items, etc) listed in the tree view on the left and, underneath that, all the personal folders that you've got connected. If you can see them there, you need to go to the screen where you set them up (Tools menu > Services under Outlook 97 or Tools menu > Accounts under Outlook 2000 or later, I think). Find the Personal Folders entries and double-click on them. I think this will reveal the filepath. If you have 2 personal folders in the list in the configuration screen but only one showing in the tree view, then doing this will allow you to determine which one you can view and which one is corrupted.

Go to http://support.microsoft.com and search the support articles for a PST Repair Tool - I'm sure they've got one but the one that you need will probably depend on the version of Outlook that you use.

Finally, it might be a good idea to run Scandisk (or the XP equivalent for checking your hard disk for errors) and Disk Defragmenter, which should be available by right-clicking on My Computer on your Start Menu and then selecting 'Manage' from the context menu.

Hope that helps

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