Yes we have done this in the past, re-created pst files from leftover fragments. Call 727-345-9665 ext 203 to speak with an email expert.

Thanks,
Jake

Hello,

I lost my pst file of approx 1GB size containing important official mails of 4 month period. I have been taking backup once in a while, but for this period I did not have backup.

I used to store all my PSTs in a USB HDD drive, so that I could use Outlook 2007 both from Office Laptop and Home Laptop, by plugging the HDD to respective laptops, HDD being lighter and easier to carry around. Both laptops run Windows XP SP2.

On one occasion however, what probably happened was that while logged into outlook, I put the laptop in Hibernate mode(not shutdown), and then inadvertently pulled out the HDD. (The HDD was not ejected before hibernate.)

On next login I got an outlook error about PST being corrupted (don’t recall the exact message) and outlook recommended that I run Inbox Repair Tool (scanpst.exe).

I ran scanpst.exe, but it could not repair the Inbox. Scanpst.exe created a logfile in the same folder as the pst folder, which I have appended below.

After this, Scanpst recommended that I run CHKDSK. Here is when I made blunder of not taking a backup of the corrupted pst, before running chkdsk.

After running chkdsk (following the sequence – My Computer>Properties>Tools>Checknow), to my horror, I found that pst file was reduced to 0 bytes.

Immediately after this mishap, I made sure not to write anything at all on this external USB HDD, and other than one 0 byte pst file, condition of the rest of the file system and physical condition of the HDD is excellent.

The size of the HDD is about 80 GB and about 40% is free space. For fear of overwriting, I did not analyze the fragmentation condition of the HDD. But the since the PST file is about 1GB in size, it may be fragmented.

I tried to run a variety of (atleast 3-4) types of recovery softwares including file signature verification types of software, but they failed to recover the mails in the pst file in question, as the softwares usually came up with 0 bytes pst only. (It seems that a deleted file is easier to recover than recovering the mails data in a pst file which is not deleted, but has 0 bytes)

Can you suggest good recovery software and nore detailed do-it-yourself instructions and how to recover the mails in 0 byte pst file?

Regards

Scanpst log file content>>>>

Microsoft (R) Inbox Repair Tool
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corp 1995-1996. All rights reserved.

**Beginning NDB recovery

**Attempting to open database

**Attempting to validate header

!!End-of-file less than actual (read=44A94400, actual=448A4400)

**Attempting to validate AMap

!!AMap page @1124008960: CRC mismatch (read 4CCC649C, computed 666C1A77)
!!AMap page @1124008960: Sig mismatch (read 89C9, computed 0000)
!!AMap page @1124008960: PTYPE mismatch (read E7, expected 84)
!!AMap page @1124008960: PTYPE does not repeat (E7/45)
!!AMap page @1124008960: BID mismatch (read F609C89C945604C, expected 42FF0400)

!!AMap page @1124262912: CRC mismatch (read 00000000, computed 29560247)
!!AMap page @1124262912: PTYPE mismatch (read 00, expected 84)
!!AMap page @1124262912: BID mismatch (read 0, expected 4302E400)

!!AMap page @1124516864: Sig mismatch (read 62F2, computed 0000)
!!AMap page @1124516864: PTYPE mismatch (read 80, expected 84)
!!AMap page @1124516864: BID mismatch (read 7E89BA, expected 4306C400)

!!AMap page @1124770816: CRC mismatch (read BF473D63, computed 0FA233F1)
!!AMap page @1124770816: Sig mismatch (read 0F4C, computed 0000)
!!AMap page @1124770816: PTYPE mismatch (read E5, expected 84)
!!AMap page @1124770816: PTYPE does not repeat (E5/E2)
!!AMap page @1124770816: BID mismatch (read C0D2673588AE5DEC, expected 430AA400)