Outlook .pst Emergency

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June 8th, 2009, 11:28 PM
CyberB0b

Outlook .pst Emergency

I know this is not the proper forum but you guys are so knowledgeable and it's an emergency so here goes.

Over the weekend I migrated a company's email from pop3 to imap and exchange. On one of the machines transferring to imap I moved the contents of the pop3 pst to the imap pst. The new server hadn't been pointed to by the DNS yet. These files were just supposed to copy to the pst folder and then replicate once the DNS was in place. After this was done, the emails did not show up in the inbox folder but the empty pst had grown to 1.7GB. How can I access these files?

I know I should have checked the backup, which had apparently failed, before making the changes. Any help would be well appreciated.
June 9th, 2009, 12:54 AM
t34b4g5

Greetz..

Maybe try this>

Quote:

Using the Inbox Repair Tool
To fix corrupted PST files, you can use the Inbox Repair Tool. However, the tool isn’t always able to repair every PST file. It works by repairing the PST file’s header and then deleting anything in the file that it doesn’t understand. So if a PST file’s header is damaged, as may be the case for corruption that occurs during a version upgrade, the tool should have no trouble making the repair. But if the data within the file is corrupt, the Inbox Repair Tool will likely destroy what’s left of the file. That's why it's always good to make a backup of the PST file before running the Inbox Repair Tool.

The Inbox Repair Tool is located in the C:\Program Files\Common Files\System\Mapi\1033\NT directory of any system that’s running Windows 2000 or Windows XP. The tool’s filename is Scanpst.exe. Other versions of Windows also include the Inbox Repair Tool, but the tool’s location varies among these earlier versions.

Make a copy of the .pst file/s and run the Scanpst.exe on 1 of the copy's, that way if it don't work you still have a untouched version to play with. ;)
June 9th, 2009, 01:08 AM
CyberB0b

I tried that and nothing came up. Also tried importing and creating a new account and importing.
June 9th, 2009, 01:11 AM
morganlefay

Quote:

On one of the machines transferring to imap I moved the contents of the pop3 pst to the imap pst

I dont understand this statement. How did you "move" the pst??

Did you import the pst into the new mailbox???

What version of outlook are we talking about?? And what is your IMAP server??

MLF
June 9th, 2009, 01:29 AM
CyberB0b

I moved the contents of the inbox folder from the pop3 account pst inside of outlook 2007 into the imap inbox in the same profile (drag and drop). When it was done, the emails were not visible in the new inbox folder but the pst file was 1.25GB. This was done before the DNS pointed to the new server so server side nothing was happening, just locally to the pst. The imap server is through rackspace.com.
June 9th, 2009, 01:39 AM
t34b4g5

Quote:

Originally Posted by CyberB0b

I moved the contents of the inbox folder from the pop3 account pst inside of outlook 2007 into the imap inbox in the same profile (drag and drop). When it was done, the emails were not visible in the new inbox folder but the pst file was 1.25GB. This was done before the DNS pointed to the new server so server side nothing was happening, just locally to the pst. The imap server is through rackspace.com.

It might sounds crazy, but drag 'n drop it back.. disable the dns, move it, re-enable and see if it works...

:confused:
June 9th, 2009, 02:12 AM
morganlefay

you said you tried importing the pst???

Did you click the box import into same folder (or something like that....)
I have imported into a folder in the profile before??

Is outlook pointing to the right pst\profile??

Sorry...I am a bit confused.
is this going from one machine to another??

how I usually do this is export all folders to a pst then reimport once connected to the exchange. I am not familar with drag and dropping the pst from pop3 to imap.

I would copy the pst to a safe place. uninstall outlook totally...reboot..reinstall outlook...connect to your new server..then import the pst.

MLF
June 9th, 2009, 03:58 AM
t34b4g5

Greetz.

Download this App, the Demo version should still be able to import/export :)

http://www.backsettings.com/outlook-backup.html
June 9th, 2009, 04:17 AM
CyberB0b

Quote:

Originally Posted by morganlefay

you said you tried importing the pst???

Did you click the box import into same folder (or something like that....)
I have imported into a folder in the profile before??

Is outlook pointing to the right pst\profile??

Sorry...I am a bit confused.
is this going from one machine to another??

MLF

It is the same machine and same Outlook profile. The profile contains the POP3 email account (with it's own PST) and the IMAP account (with it's own PST). I just dragged from one inbox folder to the other inbox folder. When it was done copying, there was no sign of the emails except for the fact that the PST file that was being copied to was much larger.

I also tried creating a brand new Outlook profile and imported the IMAP PST to see if it would see the transferred emails and add them but it did not.

@t34b4g5 Thanks for the link. I will try this tomorrow. I can't drag and drop it back because the emails are not visible. I moved the emails instead of copying (I stupidly figured if there was any problem I could pull the backup), so the only copy of the emails is in the new PST.
June 9th, 2009, 11:29 AM
morganlefay

Well sounds like the email is there...in a subfolder. expand all the folders in outlook

What I dont get is why not just add the imap settings to the same profile...why all this drag and droping stuff??

MLF
June 9th, 2009, 01:24 PM
dinowuff

Uh real quick here:

POP3 email messages are downloaded from the email server to your computer and stored on the hard drive. (again basic rule of thumb)

If IMAP is used all your email messages are stored on the server and never removed. In most cases Outlook creates a local cache of messages on your hard drive to speed up the opening of emails, but the originals are not touched. Also, with IMAP (this is the big one!) your sent mail and drafts are uploaded to the server! Because of this, you will see the same incoming and sent messages from any computer as long as your mail program is configured for IMAP

In short the reason you cannot see the email is because it is no longer on the server.

YO MLF or any one else, know how to get it back? Can you export to a server???
June 9th, 2009, 01:45 PM
morganlefay

It has to be imported into the mailbox on the server. You export the mailbox to a pst then connect to the server then import it into the new mailbox. Personally I still do not understand the drag and drop procedure??? Where is the original pst come from??? Was it exported??

Even when migrating to a new exchange you export then import...there is no drag and drop???

actually....there is when you forklift a whole information store...but that is an entirely different procedure.

I think the pst was dropped into the mailbox as a subfolder..thats why its not viewable in the inbox...

Check Tools>Options>Mail setup> Datafiles

Pst files are used for archive...maybe the original mail is in an OST...thry searching for *.ost in the users profle ..c:\documents and settings\

MLF
June 9th, 2009, 01:51 PM
dinowuff

Hey MLF

In POP3 and IMAP pst's are used in place of OST's.

So like SMTP if you delete the OST file when in cached mode, the client just re creates the thing. Same with POP3 or IMAP but the one difference. Delete the pst with POP3 and pretty much your email is gone. Delete the pst with IMAP and the client will recreate.

EDIT: Yea I'm with you on the copy paste or drag and drop thing!
June 9th, 2009, 01:56 PM
morganlefay

If that is that is so Dino...I think the pst was dropped in the mailbox...still as a subfolder as OP stated the new pst is over a gig after dropping it into the new mailbox...so it is there...just not visable...or sitting at the root of the mail folder.

I would go into view and expand all groups in the mail folders

MLF
June 9th, 2009, 02:16 PM
dinowuff

[offtopic]
Message states that I must spread it around some more before giving it to MLF again.
But I don't want to spread it around, I just want to give it to MLF and ONLY MLF!
[/offtopic]

CyberBob: Any Update?
June 9th, 2009, 02:22 PM
morganlefay

[offtopic] tanks dino... :hearts: [/offtopic]

MLF
June 9th, 2009, 03:44 PM
Cider

Update , would be good.

Very interested to hear what happened here coz I dont understand the Drag drop either ...

If you dragged , dropped the emails you should still have the original .pst file ...
June 9th, 2009, 06:13 PM
CyberB0b

Thanks for all the input. I have resolved the issue of the missing emails by pulling them off the old email server which was previously inaccessible. Now I am continuing on this recovery out of curiosity.

So, to clarify... The structure of the Outlook 2007 profile is that the original personal data file for POP3 is listed first and beneath that is the IMAP .pst. I dragged the data from the top inbox folder to the bottom inbox folder because that's what the guy at rackspace told me to do. This all happened before the DNS pointed to the IMAP server so the email is not and never was on the IMAP server. The point was to have the data in the IMAP .pst, so when the server connected it would automatically sync and upload to the IMAP server (probably the wrong way to do things but it's what I did). Then, the plan was to get rid of the POP3 data file and only have IMAP on the profile.

Because I used the "move" option instead of "copy", the email was removed from the original POP3 .pst so it is no longer there. Since the IMAP .pst is larger I know the email is there. There are no subfolders on the IMAP server or in the .pst.

I haven't done anything with the file today since I got the emails from the old POP3 server (emails were set to stay on server for 30 days) and had other issues to take care of, but I will check out some of these options tonight when I have a minute. Thanks to everyone for being so helpful. I'll keep you updated on my progress.
June 9th, 2009, 10:14 PM
Cheap Scotch Ron

Quote:

Can you export to a server???

If you are running a *unix mailer (.e.g postfix) then you will first need to convert the .pst to an mbox. Then move the mbox file to the unix machine and you're done. Be sure to empty your unix mailbox before copying the converted file to the unix box. Depending on the distro, the location of the mbox files vary.

*** Also, if you are running IMAP (e.g. cyrus) on your *unix mail sever, double check the mbox location/directory. It's not in the same place as postfix. I ran into this problem sometime ago. Took me a while to realize that cryus installed it's own mbox dir that was diff than the postfix. Was able to consolidate via config file.

google "pst to mbox" for scripts that convert the file formats.
do a find on ur unix box to locate the mbox directory.

Alternatively, I believe Thunderbird has an import/export feature built into the product.
June 20th, 2009, 04:49 PM
mark_boyle2009

I have all the kit u need to fix.
1. PST (Microsofts PST File)
2. OST (Microsofts Offline Store Files)

Drop me a pm and I can fix either in the event of corruption or failure.

Mb