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Outlook Freezing when opening a .pst

S

sicsicsic

Member
I set a new user up with a pc that has a fresh install of Vista and Service Pack 2.

With Outlook 03 installed we try to open up a .pst from a networked drive. It worked fine before she received this new PC, and it works fine when i open it from my Outlook 2007. On her computer, however, it claims the folder was not closed properly and needs to check for errors. During this time it freezes indefinitely. The file is 4GB, so we let it run over night but without any progress.

Again, the file opens fine from my pc. I have upgraded her to Outlook 07, problem still occurs.

I am currently running a Scanpst on the file, and then will proceed to a windows repair if necessary. Also, uninstalling/reinstalling hasn't seemed to work. Nor has deleting/recreating her mail profile.

Any help would be very, very appreciated!
 
Sorry I have to ask the obvious: have you tried deleting her pst and copying it over to her computer again?

Also you can try creating a new profile and see if she is able to open the pst file from there?

Good luck!
 
Before beginning you may want to run CHKDSK C: /F on the system drive.

Does the inbox repair (scanpst.exe) find problems and fix them? 4GB is a HUGE for a pst. (may want to archive hehe)

If the file can be fixed what you may want to do is create a new profile, and get Outlook running with a new PST file altogether. Put the users' settings in and send/receive into that file making sure it's working, etc.

THEN use the import feature and try importing the repaired file into the working one. Again 4GB is HUGE and this may take a while. Just let it finish and go from there.

BTW this assumes you're not on Exchange...
 
That is not good. Did you try uninstalling , reboot then install outlook again or office.

simple, give it a try... gl
 
Scanpst is what i would use to fix it. As an alternative if it does not work, you could open the pst on your computer and export, move, or copy the contents to another pst.
 
Greatly appreciate your help guys.

Unfortunately all of the above has been tried and failed. Here's the kicker though: My XP machine opens the pst (even after stating it hasn't been closed properly yadda yadda, but then doesn't say this anymore after each subsequent close/reopen), but computers with vista are the ones to experience the indefinite lock up when attempting to open the pst.

I can set her up with an XP machine, I just didn't want to let the problem defeat the tech so-to-speak.

Time is really sensitive so I suppose this is my only option.

I'm sure the file size contributes to the issue, I just don't understand why a newer OS would experience the problem and not older ones.

In the meantime if this stirs up any other solution pertaining to the Vista operating system, I'm all ears (or eyes in this case).

Again, this forum is always wonderful and thank you for the help!

Edit: I've got the pst up on my XP machine, gonna try and export it to a file, put it on a DVD and take it over to here, see if this works. *crosses fingers*
 
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In any case, yes the pst is really huge. I'd recommend starting them on a new one even if the copying to a dvd and transferring works.
in my experience, large files become unstable sometimes.
 
The pst file size limit existed before Outlook 2003, it was 2GB. In 2003, they changed the encoding pst used. It theoretically has a 32TB size limit, but it has been tested to work reliably up to 20 GB. I always try to tell my users to keep a seperate pst for each calendar year, which helps keep pst file size down. I've seen the amount of RAM on a machine factor into opening large PSTs.
 
I exported the file to a new pst, put it on the share drive she needs to access and it worked. Now to tidy it up a bit and separate it into cleaner pst files.

Thanks for your help guys!
 
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