Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Recover lost data by simply performing the OST to PST conversion


Presence of corruption in OST file may occur due to various reasons. Whatever may be the reason? Corruption of Outlook OST file is a serious concern which no one can ignore as it can pose major issues later on. The major problem that occurs after corruption of Outlook OST file is inaccessibility of OST data. OST file contains data of objects, such as contacts, e-mail messages, attachments, appointments, tasks, notes, journal, events, etc. Important e-mail operations cannot be carried out at the same time. These all are the difficulties that directly result after OST file corruption. Still, there is no need to be hopeless. Today, several third party tools are available in the market that are enough capable to perform OST to PST conversion. These tools have been specially designed to perform conversion of OST data into PST.

Below stated are some symptoms that are observed when synchronization of Outlook OST file cannot be carried out easily with Exchange Server:

  • Appearance of several error messages at a time when Outlook OST file in Outlook is synchronized with your mailbox on a server that is executing MS-Exchange Server.
  • Absence of some Outlook items, such as e-mail messages, appointment, contacts, tasks, journal, events, notes, posted items and documents from Outlook OST file or from the mailbox once a synchronization of OST file and mailbox is made.

Cause:
Reason behind the occurrence of above mentioned symptoms is a corruption of Outlook OST file. Some other issues related to synchronization of OST file is also the result of OST corruption.

Solution:
For solving the above stated problematic situation, you have to follow the below stated measures. These measures include:

  • Use of Scanost.exe tool: Outlook versions like Outlook 2003 and 2007 make use of an OST Integrity Check tool to verify the inconsistencies contained in Outlook OST file. But, Outlook 2010 does not provide any tool to solve errors or inconsistencies in Outlook OST file as of earlier versions. However, if there is an issue with a specific folder, then it is suggested to resync the folder in MS- Outlook 2010. Below stated are the steps:

    1. Select Properties by doing a right click on the folder.
    2. Select Clear Offline items, and then select OK.
    3. Select the Send/Receive tab on the Outlook 2010 ribbon.
    4. Select Update Folder.

However, if the problem still remains the same, then it is good to opt for a third party OST PST converter tool. Yes, number of third party software are easily available online. The best thing is that a facility of a free demo version of the software is available on Internet. You just have to download a demo version of the software. Demo versions help you to evaluate the features of the product easily.

One such tool is Stellar Phoenix Mailbox Exchange Desktop that is specially designed to convert OST to PST. Once OST PST conversion takes place by this tool, data of Outlook OST file can be read into PST format of Microsoft Outlook. Developed with an interactive user interface, the tool is easy to operate. There is no need to have a sound technical knowledge for using this tool.

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Bid adieu to the crunch of OST file corruption with OST to PST Converter


Microsoft Exchange Servers efficaciously handle business emails and are put into service in various corporate sectors. Professional users are cognizant about the fact that Exchange Servers are not free from faults. By the same token, some users would require to access their mailboxes and data from multiple devices and locations. It is not expedient that accessibility to Exchange Server can be maintained every time, everywhere.

As a resolve, Microsoft offered Exchange users a perk to work on their emails and Outlook items even in the absence of connectivity with the Exchange Server. OST files are Offline Storage Table files that are the clones of an Exchange user mailbox and are stored on the local machine. Whatever changes are made to the user mailbox or emails in the OST file get updated on the Exchange Server mailbox by synchronizing the .ost files with the server.

OST Corruption

Though, it does seem like a piece of cake to work both on-line and off-line on MS Outlook without the shackles of device or location dependency, there is a flip side to the coin as well. The OST files succumb to corruption owing to multifarious reasons like:

  • Hardware failure (disk crash)
  • Power failure (dirty shutdown)
  • Abnormal Outlook termination
  • Virus attack or Trojan malfunction
  • Errors during synchronization

Resolution

These factors forestall the automatic synchronization of Outlook OST file with the MS Exchange Server. Such a situation of .ost file corruption calls for OST repair using Microsoft in-built utility 'Scanost.exe'. This utility is apt at repairing the .ost file in major cases of corruption; however, Scanost sometimes begets a situation of data loss, as it completely restructures the OST file and removes the items it fails to recognize. Therefore, it is admonished to keep a backup copy of the original OST file before running any utility to repair it.

As Scanost falls short to repair the OST file at times of severe corruption, a third party tool to convert OST to PST becomes imperative. Copious OST to PST Converter tools are available in the market that successfully recovers all the vital data from the corrupt OST files. Veracious third party software for OST to PST Conversion is “Stellar Phoenix OST to PST Converter”.

A staunch solution for OST corruption, this tool restores the original RTF and HTML formatting of messages. Prior to recovery, this software offers a preview of the user mailbox and items in a tree-view format. The newly created PST file can be imported into Outlook to regain access to the user mailbox and data. Crafted on the grounds of efficiency and user-friendliness, this software uses advanced mechanisms to recover data and supports MS Outlook 2010, 2007, 2003, 2002 and 2000.