A .The pst file is the file that contains almost all your Outlook information. This is not only your email, but contacts, the tasks list, all of your calendar information and your notes. This is an extremely important file, so you should know how to repair PST file in advance of a problem occurring. Imagine how frustrated you would be if you lost all this critical date just like that. Read this article to learn how to PST File Repair.

Unlike with Outlook Express where all of the folders are separate files, in Outlook all of your email, contacts, calendar info, notes, and tasks are contained in a single .pst file. This file can grow to be very large and for any of various reasons, it can become corrupt. If this happens, don’t panic. There are several ways you can repair the .pst file.

The first thing you should do is to make a backup of the .pst file. Don't procrastinate, now is the perfect time to backup all your pst info. Depending on how often your data changes and how important it is will determine how often you will want to back it up, but back it up. In Windows Explorer you should copy the Outlook PST file to another location that is not on the current hard drive.   Better yet check out this Online Vista Back article.Backing up your data online is a great choice.  Your .In XP the file can be found at drive:Documents and SettingsuserLocal SettingsApplication DataMicrosoftOutlook and in Vista at drive:userApplication DataMicrosoftOutlook. If your .pst file becomes corrupt, you can use Data file Management on the file menu to remove and replace the .pst file with the backup, or simply drag the backup file back into place. Outlook will need to be closed to drag the file into place or back it up.

But if you need to know how to PST File Repair, the first thing to try is the Inbox Repair Tool. The location will varie but for all Outlook programs pre 2007 is will be a close match to drive:Program FilesCommon FilesSystemMapiLocaleID and titled scanpst.exe.exe. Take not that the LocaleID is specific to your computer and depending on what Outlook version you have it may or may not even have this last folder. Browse there from your Start, Run menu and click OK. Even if you have a backup, choose the option to make a backup before repairing.

If the repair works, you will see a message saying that the repair is complete. If not, then it is time to pull the backup or use a more advanced PST repair tool like the one this article links to. Many of these are very good, and a lot of them are try before you buy, so you can make sure that they work before you purchase them. The main part of this article is to get you to backup your PST file and all your important documents, we do also cover some free pst repair methods as well.

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