Outlook XP PST file suddenly 0KB!!

[Mark Lenkner]

Anyone who can help, please do. I've lost about 4 years
worth of email.

First, system info. I have a P4 2.0GHz, WinXP SP2,
OfficeXP SP3 (I think) and have my PST file stored on a
Promise FastTrak SX4000 RAID 5 array (3+1, 300GB usable).

I went to check my email last night, and got an error
message that my PST file was not a vaild Outlook store,
and it wouldn't allow Outlook to open. I checked, and
the file is 0KB. The "Date Modified" stamp is 9/13/04,
1:12PM. Problem here is that I was not home at that
time. My wife couldn't do this, and I keep a pretty safe
system (I think). I have a Linksys router, updated AV,
all the critical patches, etc. I run AwAware SE weekly.
I don't think it's a virus, but cant be sure.

Has anyone experienced or heard of an Outlook PST file
suddenly deflating to 0KB? If so, what can I do (if
anything) to get it back?

Oh, and on a related note, I've not saved anything to
that drive partition, and I have run the CHKDSK utility
and several data recovery utilities, only to find that
nothing is able to find my now lost PST file. I'm
guessing it was about 500MB, but not quite near the 2GB
limit.

Please help. Replies to this forum or to my personal
email address would be most appreciated!!!

Thanks,
Mark

 

[Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]]

Did you turn on searching for hidden/system files? Sounds like you found an
empty archive .pst file. Look again.

--
Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]

Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. Due to
the (insert latest virus name here) virus, all mail sent to my personal
account will be deleted without reading.

After searching google.groups.com and finding no answer, Mark Lenkner asked:

| Anyone who can help, please do. I've lost about 4 years
| worth of email.
|
| First, system info. I have a P4 2.0GHz, WinXP SP2,
| OfficeXP SP3 (I think) and have my PST file stored on a
| Promise FastTrak SX4000 RAID 5 array (3+1, 300GB usable).
|
| I went to check my email last night, and got an error
| message that my PST file was not a vaild Outlook store,
| and it wouldn't allow Outlook to open. I checked, and
| the file is 0KB. The "Date Modified" stamp is 9/13/04,
| 1:12PM. Problem here is that I was not home at that
| time. My wife couldn't do this, and I keep a pretty safe
| system (I think). I have a Linksys router, updated AV,
| all the critical patches, etc. I run AwAware SE weekly.
| I don't think it's a virus, but cant be sure.
|
| Has anyone experienced or heard of an Outlook PST file
| suddenly deflating to 0KB? If so, what can I do (if
| anything) to get it back?
|
| Oh, and on a related note, I've not saved anything to
| that drive partition, and I have run the CHKDSK utility
| and several data recovery utilities, only to find that
| nothing is able to find my now lost PST file. I'm
| guessing it was about 500MB, but not quite near the 2GB
| limit.
|
| Please help. Replies to this forum or to my personal
| email address would be most appreciated!!!
|
| Thanks,
| Mark

 

[Guest]

Milly,

Yes, I certainly did. I'm quite well read/experienced in
computers (my first was a Trash 80), and know most, if
not all, of the usual tricks. I'm USUALLY in your
position, helping others. This time, however, I'm
finding MYSELF behind the proverbial 8-ball....

I've even searched for any files modified between the
12th and the 14th that are over 150MB on all of my
drives, thinking that perhaps a temp file was created
whenever this anomaly occured. However, the only thing I
found was my pagefile. =)

Any other ideas?

Thanks!
- Mark