How to Repair Corrupt PST or OST Files in Outlook
Microsoft Outlook is a widely used tool for managing emails and contacts, but sometimes the PST or OST files can become corrupted. This can lead to a range of issues from emails being unreadable to data loss. Thankfully, there are several reliable tools and techniques available to repair these files. This guide will introduce you to some of the most commonly used options and provide a detailed comparison of their features and limitations.
1. Using the Built-in Inbox Repair Tool
Description: The Inbox Repair Tool, also known as ScanPST.exe, is a free and built-in tool provided by Microsoft that comes with Outlook. It is specifically designed to repair minor corruptions in PST and OST files.
Usage: You can find ScanPST.exe in the installation folder of Outlook. It works by scanning the file, identifying issues, and attempting to repair them.
Limitations: This tool is best suited for fixing minor corruption issues and may not be effective for heavily corrupted or large files.
2. AyushTech OST to PST Repair Tool
Description: AyushTech OST to PST Repair is a comprehensive PST repair tool that can repair severely corrupted PST files, recover lost or deleted emails, and restore mailbox items.
Features: The tool is user-friendly and supports large PST files. It can recover emails, attachments, contacts, calendars, and more. It also provides options to split or compact PST files to prevent future corruption. Additionally, it can convert OST to PST, making it a dual-purpose utility for Outlook data management.
Additional Capabilities: It can handle a wide range of recovery scenarios, including encrypted PST files.
3. Vartika Repair for Outlook
Description: Vartika Repair for Outlook is a powerful third-party tool designed to repair corrupt PST files with high accuracy.
Features: It can repair large and severely damaged PST files, recover deleted emails, and save data in various formats such as PST, EML, MSG, and more. It also supports the recovery of encrypted PST files.
Limitations: The free version has limitations on the amount of data that can be recovered.
4. SysVita for Outlook PST Repair
Description: SysVita for Outlook PST Repair is another reputable tool for repairing PST files. It is known for its efficiency in handling severely corrupted files.
Features: It allows for the recovery of emails, contacts, calendars, and more from damaged PST files. The tool also offers options to save the recovered data in multiple formats, including PST, MSG, EML, DBX, and MBOX.
Limitations: The free version is limited in functionality, similar to SysVita.
5. vMail Outlook Repair
Description: vMail Outlook Repair is highly regarded for its ability to repair both PST and OST files with a high recovery rate for severely corrupted files.
Features: It supports the recovery of all mailbox items, including emails, contacts, and calendars. It can handle large PST files exceeding the 2GB size limit.
Limitations: The full functionality is available only in the paid version.
6. KDEtool Outlook PST Repair
Description: KDEtool Outlook PST Repair is a versatile tool that can repair PST files and recover all Outlook mailbox items, even from highly corrupted files.
Features: It supports the recovery of emails, contacts, calendars, journals, and more. It can save recovered data in multiple formats and offers preview options before saving the recovered data.
Limitations: The trial version only allows limited data recovery.
In conclusion, these tools offer various features and capabilities depending on the severity of the corruption and the specific needs of the user. For general repairs, the built-in ScanPST.exe is often sufficient, but for more serious issues, third-party tools like AyushTech ATS OST to PST Repair provide more robust solutions.