Outlook won't access offline folder file.

[TriLife]

I am having a peculiar problem with one users account. We are running
a domain envrionment with roaming profiles. This person has both a
desktop and a laptop, both running Office 2007. Our exchange server is
2003. All of the latest patches have been applied.
When the user is in the office the laptop connects just fine to
Exchange and everything synchronizes perfectly. However when the user
leaves the office and tries to access their outlook to review old
messages they are presented with the dialog box used to confirm the
user account and exchange server to connect to. Choosing OK or Cancel
results in the same effect. The window pops up a second time and then
they are presented with the following error message:

The file C:\Documents and Settings\user_account\Local Settings
\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook\Outlook.ost cannont be accessed.
You must connect to Microsoft Exchange at least once before you can
use your offline folder file.

As a test I took their desktop system disconnected the network cable
signed in and opened outlook with no problem. All of the settings
appear to be identical between the laptop and the desktop. I even
deleted their profile completely from the laptop and allowed the
Domain Controller to re-establish their profile on the laptop and
restarted outlook onthe laptop and allowed it to re-synchronize all of
their folders. I have checked that the OST file exists and that they
have permissions. Everything seems in order but as soon as we are away
from the network the same thing happens.

I am strongly considering re-loading the laptop from scratch, but I
would like to avoid that if possible, there must be a better solution
since that is no guarantee that it will work.

 

[- Bobb -]

I am having a peculiar problem with one users account. We are running
a domain envrionment with roaming profiles. This person has both a
desktop and a laptop, both running Office 2007. Our exchange server is
2003. All of the latest patches have been applied.
When the user is in the office the laptop connects just fine to
Exchange and everything synchronizes perfectly.

So laptop is fine ONLINE.

However when the user
leaves the office and tries to access their outlook to review old
messages they are presented with the dialog box used to confirm the
user account and exchange server to connect to. Choosing OK or Cancel
results in the same effect. The window pops up a second time and then
they are presented with the following error message:

The file C:\Documents and Settings\user_account\Local Settings
\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook\Outlook.ost cannot be accessed.
You must connect to Microsoft Exchange at least once before you can
use your offline folder file.

But laptop has never worked OFFLINE. Manually create the profile via the
Mail icon in Control Panel on the laptop and enter the Exchange account
info. Start Outlook with that profile - OK ?
Delete the original.

I just did a Google search and found this - mentioning for the links only
as the text is tough to read. http://frankfarm.org/journal/2008/04/

'... The problem you described is caused by corruption in the Outlook data
files, and that has a number of potential causes. Common causes of
corruption are if Outlook failed to close properly, if Windows crashed, if
you have a lot of messages and/or attachments (very large OST or PST
files), or if your computer is infected with viruses or malware. To
resolve the problem, you need to either repair the corruption or create a
new profile in Outlook. The following URLs describe these steps: Repair:
http://tinyurl.com/3cb7re . Create a new profile: http://tinyurl.com/khkcx
.. More info on Google: http://tinyurl.com/5hpln5 ...."