Discover what to do If Scanpst does not work for you
Having the query "what to do if Scanpst does not work" makes you one of the many troubled users worldwide who have failed to experience a successful repair from the built in utility provided by Microsoft for repairing Outlook PST files.
Searching this query online will land you amongst a number of other similar queries from a variety of users belonging to different arenas. But what do you do when something doesn't work out?
You look for an alternative! And that's what we are going to discuss in this segment. We will let you know the right way of working with Scanpst, the circumstances in which it stops working, and the alternative you must use against of it.
TIP: As for the beginners, Scanpst.exe, commonly known as Microsoft's Inbox Repair tool; is a utility that Microsoft offers with Outlook for ensuring users to get rid of corruption from their Outlook Data Files i.e. '.pst' files. You can find the setup for this utility in your Outlook
NOTE: The utility can repair Configured as well as Orphan Outlook PST files. But while processing a configured PST, make sure that Outlook and other related applications are closed.
How Does Scanpst Perform Data Repair?
Introduction: It all starts with a damaged PST file that; when tried being accessed on Outlook, fails to open and ends up showing an error instead.
However, there is a slight possibility that inaccessibility of your PST file may have occurred due to malfunction of Microsoft Outlook. In order to distinguish where does the issue probably exists; you must run Inbox Repair tool i.e. Scanpst.
How It Works: Basically the repair process goes through 8 quick phases of scanning your PST file. The process begins with browsing and loading, affected PST file on the utility.If corruption or errors are detected in your file, you will be informed about the same with a screen like follows: Once you proceed to repairing the affected PST file, what the utility actually does is;
- It either resets the PST file structure
- Or, rebuilds header for the items in Outlook Data File
NOTE: Before proceeding to repair selected data file, the utility automatically creates a backup for the scanned file. If you have a backup already, you can uncheck the checkbox. Minor cases of data damage or corruption get resolved; if any.
However, there is no workaround to resolve severe cases of Outlook data corruption, which is where the utility fails and you end up asking "what to do if Scanpst does not work?"
The Limitations You Tend To Face
There are chances of the utility stopping and hanging up in between file scanning. If it happens in your case, it is probably due to large size of the PST file that such a thing happens.
Similarly, there are many other limitations that you will have to eventually face while using Scanpst.exe utility that are:
- PST files are repaired from minor issues and not recovered from damage. So, you cannot deal with severe corruption issues.
- Large sized Outlook data files might end up slowing up the performance and may even lead to termination of then application in between.
- You cannot handle PST files protected with passwords or the ones surfaced with data deletion.
What to Do If Scanpst Does Not Work?
Ultimately, when you fail to obtain a solution from the Inbox Repair Tool that's what you end up asking. You begin looking for an alternative; which is available in the form of third party solutions.
Outlook PST Recovery being one of the best amongst such programs would be suggestive for circumstances like these. You get to; repair PST files severely corrupted / damaged, recover password protected files, and resolve permanent data deletion cases too.
What more could a stranded user want?
TIP: You can also convert the recovered data using this external application into a healthy PST format or single mail formats like; EML and MSG.