Microsoft Outlook supports the use of an Internet Mail Access Protocol 4 (IMAP) account that uses a Personal Folders (.pst) file as the default e-mail store. A PST can get corrupted for various reasons and show abrupt symptoms as described below. These events create situations that demand PST recovery solutions.

For example, consider a situation where you are trying to send an email message in MS Outlook 2003, which is configured to use an IMAP account. Sending the message fails and you receive an error message as mentioned below:

“Sending reported error (0x80040201): ‘Unknown error 0x80040201.”

You may notice additional symptoms, such as not being able to delete email items from your personal folder.

Cause

All these symptoms indicate that the Outlook PST that you are using as the default data file is corrupted. The most likely reason could be a PST file size greater than 2 GB. MS Outlook 2002 and its earlier versions have a 2 GB file size limit for PST, beyond which PST has chances of getting corrupted. However, PST file corruption can also be due to other reasons.

Solution

To repair damaged PST, Outlook installation includes a Scanpst.exe file. The file launches the ‘Inbox Repair Tool’ which can fix most of the corruption issues associated with Outlook PST. This is a hidden file, so make sure the ‘Show hidden files and folders’ option is enabled to view the file. Also, you can follow these steps to start the repair:

1. Close Outlook
2. Click ‘Start’ and then ‘Search’ or ‘Search’
3. Type ‘scanpst.exe’ in the search box
4. Double click on the file to open ‘Inbox Repair Tool’
5. Browse for the affected PST and specify the file name
6. Click ‘Start’ to start the repair
7. Click ‘OK’

Inbox Repair Tool (scanpst.exe) cannot repair PST that is larger than 2 GB. Although you can use the 2GB truncation utility to trim the file first and then repair it, this causes the specified value of data to be lost. A more efficient and safe solution to repair such PST (or any corrupted PST) is to use commercially built PST recovery software. These applications are perfectly designed PST (Personal Storage File) recovery utilities that use advanced scanning algorithms to examine and repair damaged Outlook personal folder.

PST file recovery software is an easy-to-use utility that repairs damaged PST files and restores them to the original content and view. The PST recovery software is compatible with MS Outlook 2007, 2003, 2002 and 2000. The software offers a 3-panel interface, similar to what appears in Outlook. The tool is compatible with Windows 7, Vista, XP, 2003 and 2000.