Outlook Personal Folders (PST) Files
For many users, the first time they become aware of "PST" files is when Outlook issues an error due to its .pst file becoming corrupt. Then they become painfully aware that not only are PST files an important part of what keeps Outlook running properly, but these .pst files are also prone to errors and corruption problems that render them unusable. And when a .pst file gets corrupted, you risk losing everything you store in Microsoft Outlook, including email messages, contact records, calendar events, tasks, notes, and journal entries.
What Is A PST File?
A PST file is a single file that Microsoft Outlook uses to store all of your personal information. This file ends with an extension of .pst and is often named Outlook.pst but can have any valid filename. Depending on who you ask, PST stands for "Personal Storage Table" or "Personal Folders File". Microsoft Outlook stores its .pst file on your local hard drive and stores all of your information inside of that single .pst file. If anything bad should ever happen to that file, such as getting deleted, getting damaged, or getting corrupted in any fashion, then you'll see an error message in Outlook.
Outlook PST Error Messages
If your .pst file has the default Outlook.pst name, and something has gone wrong with the file, Outlook will report an error message similar to one of the following:
- Outlook.pst is not a personal folders file
- Outlook.pst could not be found
- Outlook.pst could not be opened
- Outlook.pst can not be accessed - 0x80040116
- Outlook.pst has reached its maximum size
If your .pst file has a different name you'll see a slightly different error message. In any event, you'll need to exit Outlook and stop using it until you've recovered and repaired the damage that has occurred. If you've been backuping up your files you might be able to replace the damaged .pst file with a recent backup. No matter what you do, however, be sure to make a copy of your current, damaged, .pst file and back it up for safekeeping.
PST File Size Limits
As was mentioned earlier, Outlook stores all of your personal information in a single .pst file on your local hard drive. So when Outlook retrieves an email message, it removes it from the email server and stores it in its PST file. The more email you receive, the bigger this PST file gets. The same goes for contacts, calendar events, and so forth. The more you add, the more your Outlook.pst file grows.
Older versions of Outlook (Outlook 97, Outlook 98, Outlook 2000, Outlook 2002) can't handle a PST file that gets bigger than 2GB in size. Once your .pst file gets that large you're in trouble as Outlook can no longer open the file and will act as if it is corrupted. (If you run into that situation, Stellar Outlook PST Repair can split pst files that are too big, solving the "2GB PST Limit" problem.)
Starting with Outlook 2003, PST files have a maximum size determined by the user, with a recommended upper limit of 20GB. This is a good thing as the number of email messages we all receive and retain continues to go up. Unfortunately, file size limits are only one of the problems effecting the Personal Folders file used by Outlook.
How Do PST Files Get Corrupted?
PST file corruption can occur in a number of ways. A PST file is not a regular text file - it is a special binary file format invented by Microsoft specifically for storing Outlook data. And Outlook stores all of its data in one of these files, which means it has the file open and is writing to it quite often. So any one of these events could cause a PST file to be left in an incorrect, incomplete, or otherwise corrupt state:
- your computer suddenly loses power
- your computer gets shut down improperly
- a bug in Outlook causes it to crash
- an Outlook upgrade hangs up
- an operating system patch fails to install correctly
- a bug in some other application corrupts the pst file
- Outlook was backed up to faulty backup media
While it would be nice if .pst files never had problems, the reality is that they are rather fragile and are prone to corruption. We'll never know all the reasons why a .pst file get damaged. And we'll never be able to completely prevent .pst file corruption from happening. And that is why there are pst repair programs like Stellar Outlook PST Repair.
PST File Repair Has Never Been Easier...
Stellar Outlook PST Repair scans all of your damaged .pst files, then extracts and restores them into new, fully usable .pst files - enabling complete and total recovery of all your important information. Fast! Easy! Fixed!
Fix Corrupt PST Files In 3 Easy Steps:
