Personal Storage Table (.pst) is the format of a data file that MS Outlook creates locally on your computer to save emails, contacts, drafts, notes, journals, calendar items, information about password applied on the PST, etc. PST files can be used for the purpose of archiving emails and storing them on local computer.
PST files created using MS Outlook 2002 and earlier versions had ANSI character format; therefore, the maximum size limit for the PST files were 2 GB. On crossing 2 GB, the file gets damaged and unusable leading the Outlook user to fix PST. Microsoft provides a tool named scanpst.exe to repair corrupt PST but that tool does not often work successfully, specifically when corruption in the PST is major.
In order to reduce the PST damage due to size limitation, changes in the character format are made in Outlook 2003 and later versions. Outlook 2003 and 2007 support UNICODE character format and the PST can grow up to 20 GB. The latest version of MS Outlook i.e. 2010 also supports UNICODE character format and the PST created using this has the default size limit of 50 GB, which can be modified by making some changes in the Registry entries. (For more information on how to modify/configure size limit for PST visit Microsoft KB http://support.microsoft.com/kb/832925 )
Issues with PST file
Whilst there are advantages of PST file, it carries some disadvantages too. Corruption of the PST file most often leave you in the critical situation of data loss due to which you need to fix PST to recover the lost data. There can be several reasons for the damage of the PST file. For example, if the PST file is being accessed over a network, then it can be damaged when a problem in the network connection will occur during the read/write operation. Therefore, Microsoft never recommends sharing PST over network.
Other reasons that can lead into the damage of PST file are sudden system shut down, corruption of the PST header, hard disk corruption, virus attack, exceeding maximum size limit, failure of MS Outlook, etc. Due to any of these reasons, the Outlook.pst file may get damaged and all of the emails, notes, contacts, journals, etc. stored in it become inaccessible. At this moment, you need to fix PST to reclaim the lost emails and other items from the corrupt PST.
Outlook users often delete unimportant emails from their mailbox, but sometimes important emails get also deleted by mistake. Emails deleted from PST are in fact marked as deleted but not actually deleted; therefore, the size of the PST file does not get reduced. The space consumed by the deleted items is marked as unallocated for further use; therefore, until that space is not utilized by other items, there are chances to recover the deleted emails. If you need to recover some important emails that are deleted by mistake then use scanpst.exe to fix PST and to recover deleted emails. After you have repaired PST with scanpst.exe, you will see the recovered deleted items in the “Deleted Items” folder in your mailbox.
Default Microsoft Solution to fix PST
Emails, contacts, calendar entries, and other related items can have enormous importance for Outlook users. Therefore, keeping the emails’ importance and the causes of PST corruption in mind, Microsoft has provided a default tool named Inbox Repair Tool (scanpst.exe) to fix PST file. The Inbox Repair Tool can effectively deals with the PST file having minor corruptions, but in case the PST is severely damaged, the tool gets failed to repair the corrupt PST. However if you are still not sure about how to repair pst file in such situation, then you are left with an only option to use third party PST fix tool.
PST Fix Tool to Repair PST
Using the PST fix tool has ever been the best solution to recover emails, contacts, notes, etc. especially when the PST is severely damaged and Microsoft Inbox Repair Tool is failed to repair the PST. With the PST fix tool, the PST created using any version of MS Outlook can be repaired impeccably. This means the tool supports both ANSI and Unicode character formats. Comprising the self-descriptive user interface, the PST fix tool can be used without having much technical knowledge about using software applications. Thus using PST fix tool you don't have to worry about how to repair pst file anymore.
