Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Got an orphaned OST file? Try OST to PST Converter Tool

I have been a regular Outlook user and my company deploys MS Exchange Server for managing our business communication via emails. Over the period of a few initial months I never really understood the technology behind MS Outlook and Exchange Server, as it was not part of my job. I am just a regular guy with a regular, non-technical business profile.

However, that all changed one day when my Outlook OST file became orphaned. Just a day before there had been a lightning strike close at hand which caused a serious hardware failure with our Exchange Server. In order to restore everything, a new server was built. This is where the problem creeped up.

Our administrator created similar usernames as per the previous profiles. Though the sole intention was to keep it as simple as possible so that users don't actually face a problem when they work with the new server, it actually created a serious problem for me.

When I tried to logon to the new server with my old username, my OST file became orphaned as for the Exchange I was a totally different user having a different SID. This threw me in complete panic. I had tons of critical emails, important contacts and all my appointments that I had lost access of.

This brought upon a new revelation about the concept of Outlook OST Recovery and the need of OST to PST Converter tools. An OST file can become orphaned if any of these 3 factors get modified or deleted- MAPI profile on client computer, OST file and user mailbox. In other words, when the user mailbox becomes unavailable on the server permanently, the OST file becomes orphaned.

An orphaned OST file signifies loss of valuable data as it becomes unusable. An OST file can only be accessed with the profile that it was created with. To work around this situation, the OST file needs to be converted into an importable PST file.

An OST to PST Converter tool extracts all the user mailbox items such as emails, contacts, notes, tasks, appointments, journals, To-do lists and calendar entries into a new or existing PST file. More so, the data formatting for emails and messages remains intact after the conversion process.

To carry out OST to PST Conversion, third party tools come handy. There is a huge list of reliable OST to PST Converter tools that can recover data from the orphaned OST file into a usable form for almost all major versions of MS Outlook. After a fair research, I went with “Stellar Phoenix OST to PST Converter”. The software worked wonders for me and I got all my data back within a few simple steps. The demo version of the software showed me all the mailbox items that it could actually recover and once I was satisfied, I went ahead and purchased it. Glad to say, it was worth the money.

Sunday, April 22, 2012

Exchange OST Recovery when confronted with error “Exchange is currently in recovery mode”

Exchange OST files are highly popular in the global business enterprises. Not only do they facilitate a collaborative working environment through emails but also provision for accessibility of Exchange user mailbox data in the absence of connectivity with the Exchange Server.

A burning problem that Exchange users often encounter when trying to establish a connection with the server is:

Exchange is currently in recovery mode.”

This error can be the result of two factors. One is that Cached Exchange Mode is enabled and running. Secondly, the user mailbox has been moved to a different Exchange Server.

Resolve:

To resolve the error the following steps need to be followed:

1.Disable Cached Exchange Mode

To do this go to Tools menu, Click Email Accounts-> View or change exisiting Email Accounts-> Next. From Outlook processes email for these accounts in the following order list, choose Change. Under Microsoft Exchange Server disable Use Cached Exchange Mode option. Restart Outlook.

If in case, the user mailbox has moved onto a different organization or Server, Exchange OST Recovery is possible by creating a new Outlook profile. After the change of organization if you try to connect with Microsoft Exchange Server, the OST file will become inaccessible as the signature of OST file will not match with the Exchange database. The solution is to create a new Outlook profile.

2.Creating a new Outlook Profile

Go to Control Panel-> User Accounts-> Mail. Click Show Profile and select Add. Type the name of the profile to be created and click Ok. Follow the instruction and complete the process.

To recover previous data one needs to perform Exchange OST Recovery through the use of third party tools. These commercial OST Recovery software can recover all the important emails, attachments, notes, tasks, contacts and calendar entries from the OST file by converting it to usable PST.

Stellar Phoenix OST to PST Converter” is one such powerful tool. This adroit Exchange OST Recovery tool supports MS Outlook 2010, 2007, 2003, 2002 and 2000. The demo version of the software is available for free download and shows a clear preview of the recoverable items. This utility is completely read only in nature and preserves the original data formatting of messages.

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

How to Safely Move Your OST File data to a PST File using reliable OST To PST Converters

MS Exchange Server is widely incorporated in organizations using Microsoft infrastructure. It is a messaging platform that facilitates quick and easy transfer of emails and other information to the users within the organization. Data is stored on the server in the form of user mailboxes and the messages sent by the server are received in the Personal Folders (PST) file on the client side. Another useful file created in MS Outlook is the Offline Folders (OST) file. This file can be assumed as a backup copy of your mailbox on the Exchange Server. It provides offline access to your Exchange data and can be synchronized with the server to reflect changes done to the file in the user mailbox.

In order to access an OST file, you need an Exchange mailbox account. However, you may occasionally run across situations when the OST file becomes unusable. This happens more often due to deletion or removal of user mailbox on the Exchange Server. If the mailbox gets deleted, the corresponding OST file saved locally on the user's computer becomes orphaned. Thus, you might face critical loss of business information. In yet other situations, the OST file may fail to synchronize with the Exchange Server due to corruption in the file or the mailbox on server. OST file corruption may stem from different factors like oversizing of OST (crossing 2GB size limit), malware, hardware issues, application errors, etc. To work around such problems, you should first convert OST to PST, create a new Exchange account, and then import your Personal Folders file with account settings to the new Exchange account. In the event of corruption, the OST file should be repaired and then converted.

There are a multitude of OST to PST Converter utilities on the market, specifically designed to extract all data from your OST file and restore it to an equivalent Outlook PST. These OST Recovery tools provide you with the best remedy to effectively deal with scenarios leading to OST file inaccessibility. You can easily convert all precious data in your OST without affecting the original folder structure and email formatting.

With these third-party OST to PST Converter tools, you have the option to save each converted emails either as an individual 'EML' or 'MSG' files in your system. You can also save them to a network disk recognized by the host operating system. They enable you to perform complete conversion of your offline data file created in the latest Outlook versions, including MS Outlook 2010, 2007, 2003, and 2002.

Monday, March 19, 2012

Utilities to recover your mails from the OST file, in case of Exchange Server crash

OST or .ost files are related to your MS Outlook application. OST stands for Offline Storage Table file and helps in accessing your mailboxes, even if you are not connected to the Exchange Server. Also in cases of any problem with the Exchange Server database, these OST files are extremely helpful, as you can convert OST to PST and again access your mail account through your Outlook.


MS Outlook is an email client and stores all your mail related transactions, including the emails, contacts, calendar entries, notes, journals etc. in a PST file. Similarly, MS Exchange Server is a server side application that allows you to configure a number of email accounts and provides options to manage them easily. Moreover, the Exchange Server database stores all the mail transactions in it. And that is why it has been a great option for organizations to host their own Exchange Servers rather than relying on third-party mail servers.


Now, discussing the significance of the OST files, when you go offline, your Outlook application makes an exact copy of your mailbox on Exchange Server in your local computer as an OST file. The location of the OST file can be - C:\Documents and Settings\\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook.


With OST files, you can access your mailboxes, make changes in it and the changes will take effect, when the Outlook will get connected to the Exchange Server. These OST files, not only allow accessing mailboxes in conditions of limited or unreliable networks, but helps in recovering mail items in cases of any trouble. Below are some of the instances, when your locally stored OST files can be immensely helpful in restoring your mail components:

-Mailbox got deleted or migrated from the Exchange Server
-The Exchange Server database has been corrupt
-Exchange Server has been down for long or got crashed
-Damage or modification to the Exchange profile
-The name of the mail server has been changed


In any of the above situations, you can take the help of any OST to PST converter utility and convert the OST file into equivalent PST. This PST file can be easily imported into the Outlook and you will get your mail items back. Among many such available utilities, Stellar Phoenix OST to PST Converter is a reliable OST Recovery tool that works well with all major MS Outlook versions and recovers mail items, without making any change in their original format. Moreover, the process of the OST to PST Converter software is pretty simple and is absolutely easy-to-use, even for the non-technical Outlook users.