What is OST corruption and how it can be tackled manually?

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OST corruption is an unexpected event for Exchange users. As a result of OST corruption, entire emailing service of an organization gets interrupted. OST files are generated when MS Outlook fails to connect with MS Exchange Server. Several factors can be held responsible for OST corruption:

  • Exchange Server crash
  • Forced shutdown of MS Windows or MS Office
  • Corrupt hard disks
  • Virus, spyware and adware intrusion
  • Large mailbox size
  • Twisted or broken LAN cable
  • Slow internet connection
  • Malfunctioning of computer hardware
  • System shutdown due to power cut and low voltage

Exchange Server crash is a major factor causing OST corruption event quite frequently. It halts OST synchronization process with the mail server that ultimately damage OST files of a network. As a result of OST file corruption, individuals cannot open or use their mailboxes on a MS Exchange network. Corrupt or damaged OST files also show several error messages when Exchange users attempt to access their mailbox information:

  • Outlook.OST is not an offline folder
  • Cannot open particular Outlook items when offline
  • Unable to expand the folder
  • Unable to open Outlook due to a corrupt xxxx.OST file

Manual creation of OST file in one way of tackling many OST issues. In case, you cannot access your Exchange mailbox because of OST corruption, it is better to create a new Outlook profile, synchronize new profile with the Exchange Server that will create a new OST file in your local drive. Following points must be satisfied while creating a new OST file manually:

  • All previous Outlook profiles must be deleted from your computer
  • Corrupt OST file must be deleted or renamed with another file extension
  • MS Exchange Server must be running in online mode

You can easily locate new or previous OST file in your computer if you know drive path. Alternatively you can find OST file using “Search For files and folders” option provided in the Windows start menu.

You can also recover your inaccessible mailbox folders using inbuilt Outlook recovery tools i.e., Scanpst.exe and Scanost.exe. Scanpst utility can retrieve mailbox items from both corrupt OST and PST files. Scanost.exe can recover only inaccessible OST files and considered as best way to tackle OST corruption manually. However manual recovery of OST files take considerable amount of time. Jet Engine error codes and other critical OST errors cannot be eliminated with inbuilt MS Outlook tools. With third party software, you can automatically repair large or highly corrupt OST files and restore these files in Outlook.

OST to PST Converter

OST to PST converter impeccably repair and rebuild corrupt OST files of a domain. It can also recover permanently deleted exchange mailboxes of the MS Exchange organization. OST to PST convert utility save the recovered Exchange mailboxes in PST format. It can also recover highly compressed or encrypted emails of an Exchange mailbox.