Outlook 2003 large pst file with no messages

[Firelock]

Hello all.

I've got a user with Windows XP Pro/Outlook 2003 SP1, connecting
to an Exchange server and downloading her email via a rule
from her Inbox on the server to an Inbox in a local .pst file.
This local .pst file also keeps her Sent Items (archived from
the server daily).

Well, everything in her local pst's Inbox disappeared this morning.
She doesn't think she hit anything in her menus or toolbars, so
we can't tell what action she took right before they vanished.
Her Outlook app was set to Work Offline for some reason, and
she couldn't get new mail.

I turned off "Work Offline", and she was able to get new mail.
Her local .pst file had nothing showing in it but a few items in
her Sent Items folder, but when I closed Outlook and looked at
the file it showed a size of 50MB. I ran scanpst.exe and errors
were found and repaired, 931 items were reported. I repeated the
scan and it showed no errors, so I reopened Outlook. The Inbox was
still empty, all that was in the .pst file were 87 messages in the
Sent Items folder.

I noticed in the status bar that "Filter On" was showing, so I
used View/Arrange By/Custom/Filters/Clear All to turn it off,
but still nothing. I did Tools/Find/Advanced Find to search
for recent messages, but nothing was found. I even made a
backup of her local .pst file and deliberately corrupted the
backup with a hex editor (changing characters 7 through 13 to the
space character), ran scanpst.exe on this file to fix it - again,
scanpst reported 931 items, but opening this file showed nothing
but the 87 Sent Item folder messages.

So, I know her Inbox items are there - somewhere in that
50MB, apparently empty .pst file - but I can't get to them.
Any ideas on what I should try next? Thanks in advance.

Walt Smith
Firelock on DALNet

 

[Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]]

Hello all.

I've got a user with Windows XP Pro/Outlook 2003 SP1, connecting
to an Exchange server and downloading her email via a rule
from her Inbox on the server to an Inbox in a local .pst file.
This local .pst file also keeps her Sent Items (archived from
the server daily).

Why? You know you can use cached mode in OL2003 so she has a local/offline
cache of her mailbox, right? Or is this a mailbox quota issue?

Well, everything in her local pst's Inbox disappeared this morning.
She doesn't think she hit anything in her menus or toolbars, so
we can't tell what action she took right before they vanished.
Her Outlook app was set to Work Offline for some reason, and
she couldn't get new mail.

I turned off "Work Offline", and she was able to get new mail.
Her local .pst file had nothing showing in it but a few items in
her Sent Items folder, but when I closed Outlook and looked at
the file it showed a size of 50MB. I ran scanpst.exe and errors
were found and repaired, 931 items were reported. I repeated the
scan and it showed no errors, so I reopened Outlook. The Inbox was
still empty, all that was in the .pst file were 87 messages in the
Sent Items folder.

I noticed in the status bar that "Filter On" was showing, so I
used View/Arrange By/Custom/Filters/Clear All to turn it off,
but still nothing. I did Tools/Find/Advanced Find to search
for recent messages, but nothing was found. I even made a
backup of her local .pst file and deliberately corrupted the
backup with a hex editor (changing characters 7 through 13 to the
space character), ran scanpst.exe on this file to fix it - again,
scanpst reported 931 items, but opening this file showed nothing
but the 87 Sent Item folder messages.

So, I know her Inbox items are there - somewhere in that
50MB, apparently empty .pst file - but I can't get to them.
Any ideas on what I should try next? Thanks in advance.

Got any backups of the PST file?

PST files are fragile and are best avoided if you have better options, like
Exchange mailbox/public folder storage. How big was her PST file, and was it
created in OL2003 or upgraded from an older version of Outlook? If the
latter, there's a 2GB limit - and problems usually crop up a lot earlier
than that - closer to 1.2 - 1.5 GB.

Some good info on why not to use PST files:
http://www.swinc.com/resources/exch... 5.5&sectionID=1013&sectionName=Why PST = BAD

 

[Brian Tillman]

I've got a user with Windows XP Pro/Outlook 2003 SP1, connecting
to an Exchange server and downloading her email via a rule
from her Inbox on the server to an Inbox in a local .pst file.

Why in the world would she want this? It prevents sharing of calendars, for
one thing.

This local .pst file also keeps her Sent Items (archived from
the server daily).

Well, everything in her local pst's Inbox disappeared this morning.

Did she inadvertently create a new PST?

She doesn't think she hit anything in her menus or toolbars, so
we can't tell what action she took right before they vanished.

She must have done or it wouldn't have happened. Outlook items just don't
go missing on their own.

So, I know her Inbox items are there - somewhere in that
50MB, apparently empty .pst file - but I can't get to them.

And they may not be to be recovered, but try the ideas here:
http://www.howto-outlook.com/howto/restoredeleteditemsfromanoutlookpst.htm

 

[Firelock]

Why? You know you can use cached mode in OL2003 so she has a local/offline
cache of her mailbox, right? Or is this a mailbox quota issue?

It's a quota issue - some of our people will keep 1+GB of ancient
history in their mailbox if we let them. Now, of course, we're
getting problems with people wanting to keep 1+GB of ancient
history on their hard drives.

Got any backups of the PST file?

Got one about two weeks old or so. I've just started looking at
tools for auto-creating backups of PST's, I have a feeling I'll
be seeing a lot more of this.

PST files are fragile and are best avoided if you have better options,

I don't think I have a better option at the moment, but as I
and especially our configuration guru learn more I hope that changes.

like

Exchange mailbox/public folder storage. How big was her PST file, and was it
created in OL2003 or upgraded from an older version of Outlook?

PST file was 50MB. It was a fresh OL2003 creation, but 90% of
what was in it was imported from an OL2000 PST file.

If the
latter, there's a 2GB limit - and problems usually crop up a lot earlier
than that - closer to 1.2 - 1.5 GB.

I've been seeing that in our OL2000 people - thanks for giving
some numbers on where the problems are expected.

Some good info on why not to use PST files:
http://www.swinc.com/resources/exch... 5.5&sectionID=1013&sectionName=Why PST = BAD

And a'reading I shall go...thanks for the help.

Walt Smith
Firelock on DALNet

 

[Firelock]

Why in the world would she want this? It prevents sharing of calendars, for
one thing.

For quota reasons, we move Inbox and Sent Items daily. Everything
else stays on the server for a period of time, Calendar and such.

Did she inadvertently create a new PST?

If she did, it ain't on her hard drive - all the PST's are ones
we know about, and I checked the only one that had the proper
day/time stamp on it. She may have had a network connectivity
issue while DL'ing mail, but I can't verify that.

She must have done or it wouldn't have happened. Outlook items just don't
go missing on their own.

I've had some PST corruption issues before, and they don't seem
to be related to user error. The facts that the file is listed
as 50MB and scanpst.exe reads 931 items in it makes me think that
she didn't delete or move them, scanpst still thinks they are
in there!

And they may not be to be recovered, but try the ideas here:
http://www.howto-outlook.com/howto/restoredeleteditemsfromanoutlookpst.htm

Thanks, tried that...that's the page where I got the technique
I mentioned attempting in the second-last paragraph of my OP.
I appreciate the input, though.

Walt Smith
Firelock on DALNet

 

[Brian Tillman]

For quota reasons, we move Inbox and Sent Items daily. Everything
else stays on the server for a period of time, Calendar and such.

Then your default delivery location is still the Exchange server, it would
seem, which is good, but there's little point in moving the Calendar data,
since it takes up such a miniscule amount.

I wish I had some suggestions on the other problems, though. Sorry.