Help, my Outlook got toasted!

[Shadowcat]

I use Outlook 2002 to handle all of my e-mail accounts, including hotmail. Last night, I was moving a bunch of e-mails from hotmail to a local folder on my computer. I dragged them from hotmail to my folder in my Inbox. The screen stalled and a few seconds later I got the dreaded blue screen of death (I've only gotten it a few times since I've had Windows XP). It said it may be due to new hardware or software but I haven't installed anything new lately. Anyways, I turned off my computer and since it was really late, I just went to sleep. This morning I booted my computer and everything was fine until I tried opening Outlook. Everything was wiped out! E-mails, contacts, settings, folders, everything. I got the configuration screen when I opened it (the one for new users). Now, my contacts are all stored on my Pocket PC so that's fine but I've lost all my e-mails and all my personalised settings. Is there any way I can restore Outlook? Would a System Restore help at all? What about the autoarchives? Can I somehow use them to restore Outlook? Needless to say I'm really really mad at Microsoft right now!

Thanks in advance

[Dave Beauvais]

I'd try running The Inbox Repair Tool, though it sounds as though more than your PST file is corrupt. It's called "scanpst.exe" and is found in C:\Program Files\Common Files\System\MAPI\1033. Point it to your Outlook PST file, which is usually in C:\Documents and Settings\[Username]\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook. This folder is hidden by default under WinXP so you may need to tell XP to show hidden system files, first.

If the program finds any errors, just let them fix it, telling it to create a backup, first. It sounds as though more than your PST is corrupt, but this would be a good place to start.

--Dave

[Shadowcat]

Everything worked out, but it turns out my PST file wasn't corrupt afterall. I went back into Outlook and found out I can import the pst files! Silly me! First I got my "Archive Folders," then my "Hotmail" folder, and finally my "Personal Folders." However, now I have two sets of "Personal Folders," one with my old stuff and one that is empty. I tried right clicking but there is no option to delete the redundant folder. Does anyone know how I can accomplish that?

Thanks for the help. I greatly appreciate it!

[Dave Beauvais]

... I tried right clicking but there is no option to delete the redundant folder. Does anyone know how I can accomplish that?...
Generally the menu option is "Close," not "Delete." If that doesn't work, try going to Control Panel, Mail, click the Data Files button, and see if you can remove the duplicate from there..

--Dave

[Darius Wey]

The screen stalled and a few seconds later I got the dreaded blue screen of death (I've only gotten it a few times since I've had Windows XP).

Did you happen to upgrade to XP from 98? Because 95, 98, ME are notorious for their BSOD (blue screens of death), and usually if you do a fresh install of XP (i.e. format, then install), the chances of getting a BSOD are very slim.

If you did happen to upgrade, I suggest you take a day off one day and backup all your stuff and format, reinstall XP. You're system will be running really nicely afterwards.

Also, as a tip, by default, Windows allocates a paging file to the C: which is where Windows and all that is usually installed. If you allocate another partition solely for your paging file, you will find a noticeable increase in system performance, because the files in the paging file partition will not become fragmented which would occur if the paging file was in the C: mixed with all the other files.

If you also allocate different partitions to different things, e.g. Windows for one, programs for another, etc. you'll find that your system becomes easier to manage and become less buggy.

If you want to know how to do all this, tell me or drop me a PM. 8)

[Shadowcat]

No, the "close" option was greyed out and I havne't installed any new hardware or software lately, much less a new version of windows.

It turns out that after my computer crashed, Outlook created a new outlook.pst file and called it Outlook1.pst. I got trouble after deleting the new Outlook1.pst and eventually ended up with two copies of my old Personal Folder. I was eventually able to remove one of them and everything's back to normal! Once again thanks!

[Shadowcat]

Sorry, but now that everything is fine on my desktop, Activesync won't sync my e-mails anymore. Beside Inbox it says "Attention required" and when I try to resolve it, I get a window that says Information Type Not Synchronized and asks me to disconnect and reconnect my device. I've done it numerous times but it doesn't work. I realised that I the new folder I created before my Outlook had crashed was not synced to my Pocket PC so I tried deleting that but I'm still getting the errors. Does anyone have any ideas or suggestions?

Thanks