outlook 2003 freezes upon opening - synchonizing folders

[DisJohn]

I am using Outlook 2003 on Windows XP professional.

From time to time I get the 'Outlook did not properly close personal
folders' message on startup and it takes anywhere from 20 - 45 minutes to get
Outlook to open. I understand that this occurs when Outlook is not allowed
to close properly but sometimes it is unavoidable (like when Microsoft runs
an update and restarts my PC for me).

Today I had the same message and allowed Outlook to chec files. After about
20 minutes it started the process all over again. Another 20 minutes went by
and Outlook eventually opened. After a few minutes it froze up and was
showing 'not responding'. I saw the 'synchronizing folders' message and let
it go for about 10 minutes until I decided to end the process in task manager.

Same thing as above happened all over again.

I looked at the pst file and it is over 8 gigs - the archive file is about
273 MB.

I am running the inbox repair tool now but it is going on 4 hours. I
beleive it is stuck but I'm afraid to stop it for fear I will have to start
the process over again.

Can anyone help me with a faster/easier fix? Is there a way to rename the
pst file and have outlook create a new one and import my old files and data?

Any help you can provide will be appreciated - I am a little frustrated at
the moment.

Thanks
John

 

[DL]

Your pst file seems rather large, and the Archive somewhat small compared to
the pst
I would imagine the repair tool would take sometime to run on a pst of that
size

If the pst is corrupt and you create a new pst, and set that as default,
then copying old data to this pst may also copy the corruption
I'd try booting your PC into safe mode, then running scanpst.
You might also want to run checkdsk, and or the hd checking utility
available from your hd manufacturers site