cannot copy PST file from CD to local drive

J

JMG

okay, little background:
- at work, i use Windows 2000 Professional with OL 2003 (dont ask)
- at home, i have Vista and Office 2007
- i have been overseas for some time, and on my trip home backed up my
entire inbox & folders to a PST
- due to "security concerns" i was unable to copy it to a flash drive, and
used a CD RW

i understand OL's limitation regarding opening a PST off of a CD (the
read-only attribute), which leads directly to my problem:

i am unable to copy a PST file from my CD RW to a local drive. i have tried
every method i can dream up (drag/drop, copy/paste, cmd prompt copy, xcopy,
you name it) i have also tried importing from PST, and scanpst'ing the file
itself

at first i thought this was simply a corrupt file (which really had me
p---ed off), but when i discovered that older PSTs also would not copy... i
knew something was fishy.

OBTW - I am unable to write to the CD RW, due to differences in the UDF
format and software incompatibilities from the network that i originally
burned it on (ie, i cannot change the file attributes on the disk - it is
truly "read only")

PLEASE help!! the exchange server with these emails are THOUSANDS of miles
away... thanks in advance!
 
P

Pat Willener

You write that you are "unable" to copy the PST file; what does that
mean - what exactly happens when you try?
 
J

JMG

when using the GUI (ie, drag n drop, copy n paste) i get a copying file
dialogue box that goes for about 41MB out of the 50MB; then it stops and i
get an error box that reads something to the effect of "Cannot read from
source disk"

when i attempt to use a CLI, immediately i get "unable to access file"
 
J

JMG

when using the GUI (ie, drag n drop, copy n paste) i get a copying file
dialogue box that goes for about 41MB out of the 50MB; then it stops and i
get an error box that reads something to the effect of "Cannot read from
source disk"

when i attempt to use a CLI, immediately i get "unable to access file"
 
G

Gordon

JMG said:
when using the GUI (ie, drag n drop, copy n paste) i get a copying file
dialogue box that goes for about 41MB out of the 50MB; then it stops and i
get an error box that reads something to the effect of "Cannot read from
source disk"


Try cleaning the CD - toothpaste will do. (I kid you not.....)
 
J

JMG

i dont think thats it. the disc was BRAND new, and looking at it, it is
still in great shape.

thanks though!
 
A

Alias

JMG said:
when using the GUI (ie, drag n drop, copy n paste) i get a copying file
dialogue box that goes for about 41MB out of the 50MB; then it stops and i
get an error box that reads something to the effect of "Cannot read from
source disk"

when i attempt to use a CLI, immediately i get "unable to access file"

You can't get anyone to email it to you or send it via Yahoo Messenger
or the like?

Alias
 
J

JMG

i am pursuing this right now behind the scenes... thing about that is, LOTS
of firewalls would prevent it being sent via messenger. and, outgoing mail
size is limited to ~2MB. pretty sweet huh?
 
A

Alias

JMG said:
i am pursuing this right now behind the scenes... thing about that is, LOTS
of firewalls would prevent it being sent via messenger. and, outgoing mail
size is limited to ~2MB. pretty sweet huh?

I hear that Skype would be your best bet for transferring large files.

Alias
 
B

Brian Tillman [MVP - Outlook]

i am unable to copy a PST file from my CD RW to a local drive. i have tried
every method i can dream up (drag/drop, copy/paste, cmd prompt copy, xcopy,
you name it) i have also tried importing from PST, and scanpst'ing the file
itself

How do you expect anyone to answer when you don't give any details? EXACTLY
what happens when you, for example, try to drag the file from the CDRW to the
local drive (My Documents, for example)?
 
B

Brian Tillman [MVP - Outlook]

when using the GUI (ie, drag n drop, copy n paste) i get a copying file
dialogue box that goes for about 41MB out of the 50MB; then it stops and i
get an error box that reads something to the effect of "Cannot read from
source disk"

Was the CD finalized properly? Can you transfer non-PST files from the CD to
hard drive?
 
J

JMG

it is an RW, so i was continually using it to transfer files from one machine
to another. non-PSTs transferred perfectly. in fact, 3 other PSTs gave the
same error.
 
J

JMG

i think i mentioned this earlier in the threads...

with drag/drop from the disc window to the local drive, a normal file copy
dialogue appears:

Title Bar: time remaining
Copying 1 item (50.3MB)
from DVD RW Drive (e:\) to Desktop (Desktop)

w/ the expanded dialogue (more information), you can see that it hangs up at
9.39MB remaining) once the progress bar goes red, a "Copy File" dialogue
appears w/ the error "Cannot read from the source file or disk." it has the
filename, type, size, and date modified. the choices in this 2nd dialogue
are try again, and cancel

when using CLI, using copy, the error is "Data error (cyclic redundancy
check)." With xcopy, the error is "File creation error - Data error (cyclic
redundancy check)."

any of these methods are successful with an non-PST file.

*shrug* i am stumped
 
P

Pat Willener

Ah - here we get some info; cyclic redundancy check is a media error. I
don't think you can recover from that - you'll need to copy the PST file
again.
 
B

Brian Tillman [MVP - Outlook]

it is an RW, so i was continually using it to transfer files from one
machine
to another. non-PSTs transferred perfectly. in fact, 3 other PSTs gave the
same error.

How are you placing the PSTs on the disk? Is Outlook closed when you do?
 
J

JMG

doesnt it seem odd that ALL of the non-PST files are fine, and ONLY PST files
have this issue?? ...it occurs w/ 3 different PSTs

and i looked up CRCs, and found that there are many different kinds... this
error seemed vague to me
 
B

Brian Tillman [MVP - Outlook]

doesnt it seem odd that ALL of the non-PST files are fine, and ONLY PST
files
have this issue?? ...it occurs w/ 3 different PSTs

Not to me. PSTs are databases, not regular files, and some burning software
may not be well suited to burning the internal structures of a database. I've
seen databases that work well but their apparent end-of-file markers occur at
a point less than the total amount of space used by the file because the DB
software doesn't update the EOF pointer until the file gets closed. If you
try to copy the file while its opened, only the portion up to the EOF gets
copied even though data beyond that point is allocated and in use. While I
don't know that this is the case for Outlook, it woudn't surprise me.
 

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