How To Repair Corruption In Outlook Using Inbox Repair Tool

How to Repair Corruption in Microsoft Outlook Without any Hassle

Outlook is a Microsoft product and it manages our personal information. Besides this it is an email application that is used for web browsing, notes making and management of emails, tasks, calendars, contacts, etc. It keeps on gaining popularity due to its functions and syncing ability. However, it is a desktop email client, which stores its entire data like emails, contact, calendars etc. in either PST or OST format. But, sometimes these files get corrupted due to many reasons like virus, malware etc. If we precisely talk about the corruption in PST files, then there are inbuilt tools like scanpst.exe or Inbox Repair available with MS Outlook to repair damaged PST files. In this write-up, we are going to tell you the process to recover corrupted PST files.

Reasons for Corruption in MS Outlook

• Virus and Malware: The most common way by which your data can be corrupted is virus and malware. These viruses and malware copy themselves and make duplicate copies of a single file, due to which data will be corrupted. It occurs due to less secured antiviruses or firewall.
• File or Folder Deletion: The second reason for corruption of data is the deletion of any folder from the Exchange profile. Deletion or removal of any folder from backend results in data corruption.
• Sudden Power Failure: An abnormal system shut-down during synchronization process damages OST files and results data corruption.
• Large Size of OST Files: If there are large OST files in systems which is hard to manage and also these types of files are vulnerable for corruption.
• Abrupt Network Interruption: If any connected network device stops working during the synchronization process, then OST files get corrupted.
• Internal Structure Issue: Any changes in the internal structure of the previous saved OST file may give an error.
• Data Storage Device Failure: As all data is stored on hard disk either it is good or bad. If any Outlook file is stored on the infected area of the hard drive, it leads to corruption.

How to Repair Corrupted PST Files in MS Outlook?

As Microsoft is a big name in the technical world, it provides tools to the users to repair their corrupted data known as scanpst.exe or Inbox Repair tool.

STEPS

• Exit Outlook and browse one of the following file locations:
  Outlook 2016: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\root\Office16
  Outlook 2013: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office15
• Open SCANPST.EXE utility.
• Choose Browse button to select the Outlook Data File (.PST) that is corrupted.
• Click on Start to begin the scanning process.
• If any error will detect, then click on Repair to fix them.
• When the repairing process is completed then, start Outlook with the profile associated with the Outlook data file you just repaired.

What If Inbox Repair Tool Fails to Repair File?

It is not always true that the Inbox repair tool is helpful for you. It can help you to recover your data but it has some limitations which it cannot be removed. There are some cases where Inbox Repair tool fails:

• It cannot repair the PST files that exceed the size limit of 2 GB, so if your file is larger than 2 GB then it will not work for you.
• It can only resolve minor corrupted files which mean it cannot repair highly corrupted PST files.
• It fails to recover the PST file if the corruption level is higher.
• You cannot retrieve the Outlook data which was intentionally deleted.
• It fails to recover password protected PST files.
• Sometimes it fails to detect the corruption and issues after scanning.
• Sometimes, it may take a long time to repair the corrupt PST file.
• Even after resolving the files it still gives an error message "The Inbox Repair Tool does not recognize the file xxxx.pst..."

Alternative Method to Resolve Outlook Corruption

As we have seen above, there are some cases where Inbox repair tool may not work. So, in this case, experts suggest using the third-party tool to repair Outlook errors. The most effective third-party tool is SysTools Outlook Recovery tool. It provides following features:

1. It supports hard deleted outlook email recovery which means it can recover deleted email from outlook.
2. It repairs not only minor corrupted files but also the major corruptions.
3. It does not have any size limit for repairing corrupted files.
4. Batch PST Repair tool options for extraction: PST, MSG and EML file type.
5. It recovers the corrupted files and restores them to PST, EML, MSG, & Office 365.
6. It can recover your password protected or BAK files or data and restore into PST file format.
7. PST recovery works with every interface like Windows 10 (32-bit & 64-bit) and MS Outlook (32/64 bit).

Final Words

Inbox Repair tool is provided by Microsoft for retrieving the PST files with minor corruption. But, it is not able to recover major corrupted files. However, SysTools Outlook Recovery tool does not have any such limitation. So for a better result, you should use SysTools Outlook Recovery tool to repair your corrupted Outlook data file.