Receiving "...is not a personal folders file" message, can't repai

[Brian M]

Running Office 2007. To archive emails, I have been creating personal
folders files by clicking File/New/Outlook Date File (97-2002 pst files) and
simply dragging and dropping emails into these folders to archive. Recently,
I have had errors with several of these folders and no luck to repair. As I
am cleaning out my inbox I will drag and email over to a folder and it will
give me the error message noted above in the subject. I tried repairing
these pst files with Stellar and simply get an error message that the pst
file is not valid.

The latest folder I lost, I dragged an email over to it and got the error
that it could not be placed in that folder because it was not a personal
folders file. However, I was able to still click on the folder and access
all emails that have been archived. I then closed the folder, closed
Outlook, and re-opened in an attempt to access the file and Outlook then
would not open the folder, claiming again that it was not a personal folders
file. Have lost about 5 or 6 pretty important folders thus far and I am
concerned I will lose all. Am I screwed here? And is this just not a good
archiving method in the first place? Thanks

 

[Gordon]

Running Office 2007. To archive emails, I have been creating personal
folders files by clicking File/New/Outlook Date File (97-2002 pst files)

Can I ask why you are creating pst files in the old, not-very-robust 97-2002
format in the first place?

 

[Brian M]

Tbh, when presented with the option I wasn't sure which one to click or if it
even mattered. So I chose the older format thinking better safe than sorry
to be backwards compatible.

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP - Outlook]]

Running Office 2007. To archive emails, I have been creating personal
folders files by clicking File/New/Outlook Date File (97-2002 pst files) and
simply dragging and dropping emails into these folders to archive.
Recently,
I have had errors with several of these folders and no luck to repair. As I
am cleaning out my inbox I will drag and email over to a folder and it will
give me the error message noted above in the subject. I tried repairing
these pst files with Stellar and simply get an error message that the pst
file is not valid.

Once you get that message, chances are the PST is toast. There must be
something you're doing in addition to what you describe (from outside of
Outlook) that is corrupting the PST. If a commercial PST repair tool doesn't
work, you're out of luck.