Dear all,

I did something really stupid which is now causing me no end of grief. I went into tools, email accounts and deleted my account which deleted all my e-mails. This account was set up on a microsoft exchange server but e-mails were able to be read off my laptop off line. I took my laptop to a computer shop, they used recovery programs and now I have about 2.7gig of e-mail file saved to another computer as of course my laptop has now developed a fault.
The exchange server I use to use is long gone so I can't reconnect and download again.

The file is named outlook.ost. How do I transfer these e-mails to outlook on my computer, the one which i trasnferred the recovered files to? I'd be incredibly great full if someone could help me.

Sincerely

Terry

See if this helps;
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/ou...563001033.aspx

Click on;
"To scan and repair the .ost file"

Here's another related article;
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/or...921931033.aspx

Yet another;
http://www.intermedia.net/support/kb...lt.asp?id=1079

Dear Dal,

Re: OST to PST

I accessed the site but couldn't get it to start as per the links below. I may have got the path wrong, I just don't know.

To Access the ost folder I right click on the start button to access explore, then I click on;

New Volume (E, then
TerryKing, then
outlook,then
outlook.ost appears.

Is there a program I could down load to sort this out for me. In any case I think I need step by step instructions.

Thanking you in advance,

Terry

You want to run the scanost.exe program. If Windows is installed on C:, then the path will be;

C:\Program Files\Common Files\System\Mapi\1033\scanost.exe

NOTE: XXXX is the localID. 1033 is the U.S.. Being in Australia yours may be different. (It may be 1033 or 2057 or 3081 or 4105)

If your installation of Windows is on E:, then the path is;
E:\Program Files\Common Files\System\Mapi\XXXX\scanost.exe

NOTE: I just checked mine and it's;
C:\Program Files\Common Files\System\Mapi\1033\NT\scanpst.exe
(as I'm using a Personal Folders file (.pst), not an Offline Folder file (.ost).)

Once you locate the scanost.exe file; (Ensure Outlook is closed and not running)

On the Start menu, click Run.

In the Open box, type the path to your scanost.exe file. ie;
C (or E):\Program Files\Common Files\System\Mapi\XXXX\scanost.exe

Click OK.

Click either Scan all folders or Choose folder to scan. If you click Scan all folders, this may take several minutes.

Select the Repair errors check box.

Click Begin Scan.

Details of actions performed during the scan and repair are saved as a message in your Outlook Deleted Items folder with the subject "OST Integrity Check."

If the Offline Folder file cannot be repaired, you can disable it and create a new one.

To disable the .ost file and create a new one

On the Tools menu, click E-mail Accounts, click View or change existing e-mail accounts, and then click Next.

In the list, click Microsoft Exchange Server, and then click Change.

Click More Settings.

Click the Advanced tab, and then click Offline Folder File Settings.

Click Disable Offline Use.

In the File box, type the path to the file you want to use as the new .ost file. The default file name is outlook.ost. If this file name already exists, you are prompted for a new name.

Dear Dan,

I sincerely appreciate your precise instructions.

Nothing seems to be working.

I have read that files like mine which is about 2.5GB are too large to work on without cropping http://ask-leo.com/my_pst_has_grown_...t_do_i_do.html

Would it be possible for me to send you the zipped file to see if you can't sort it out for me? I would be willing to return the favor with an agreed donation, but if its out of the question then just let me know as I have tried everything.

Best regards,

Terry

2+ GB is too large to post or mail. Besides that, I don't really want to be in someones personal email.

New thought. Have you tried to import the recovered .ost file into your Outlook?

Also if the file requires repair, you'll have to crop the file to something below 2GB with the MS Crop Tool.
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=296088

Dan, I've sorted the problem out so thanks for your efforts. I ended up buying a commercial program called Kernal - cost me quite a few $$ but I had 20K work related e-mails so I feel relieved - I won't make the mistake of deleting an e-mail account like that again. Thanks again for your help, Terry

You're welcome. It's unfortunate that MS doesn't provide something on that scale for their products.

Glad you retrieved what you desired though.

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