The Inbox Repair Tool (also known as scanpst, which is the name of the executable file) is a free utility from Microsoft designed to repair the damage to corrupt Outlook PST files. Many people look for a free copy of the scanpst.exe file to download, but that isn’t very safe as you never know what kind of file you might be getting from an Internet website. And it isn’t even necessary because every version of Outlook, including XP, 2000, 2003, 2007, etc. (even the latest Microsoft Outlook 2010) includes a copy of the Inbox Repair Tool.
The problem is that the Microsoft Office/Outlook installer places the repair program in hard-to-find locations. It also often makes it a hidden file. So make sure you search all your system files and you should be able to find it.
Inbox Repair Tool Errors
Another challenge people face is that this free tool does a poor job of fixing the errors and recovering all the data from an Outlook.pst or Personal Folders File, which is the single file in which all your email messages, contact records, shared items, appointments, journal entries, calendar events, alarms, schedules and other valuable information is stored. Because of that, there are several third-party PST repair tools available that do a much better job at PST recovery and repair.
There are known bugs that can cause things like an 0X80040600 error, or you might lose power and have your computer shut down while Office was in the middle of updating your email or contact records. Or your file might have grown larger than the 2gb file size limit some older versions weren’t able to handle. Or a bad bit on your hard drive could alter the encoding of the file, which is a database file under the covers, making it impossible for Outlook to read it properly.
Alternative PST Repair Tools
Even though we’d like to be able to say which is the best *.pst repair tool, and which ones are no good, you really have to try one or more of them yourself and see how they work for you. If you have a big file, the process might take a while. But if you data has any value to you at all, it might be worth the time, hassle, and expense to buy a tool that can repair the damage, recover your data, and reduce your file size.
The job of recovering data from corrupt files is extremely challenging and all the available tools have a price, although most do have a free download or trial version that will give you an idea of whether or not they will work for you. Here are a few that are worth evaluating:
- The Stellar Phoenix company has a great deal of experience in data recovery in general. They make a Stellar Outlook PST Repair program that you can download and evaluate. Stellar Phoenix Outlook includes a file splitting utility and a password recovery feature as part of their offering.
- Data Numen has also been around a while and makes a variety of data recovery products, including their Advanced Outlook Repair (AOR) tool. This appears to be the most expensive option, so be sure to read about it and download the free demo.
- Nucleus Data Recovery is another established vendor in the data recovery market. They are the creators of the Kernel for Outlook PST Repair Tool, which you can also download and try on your own. Kernel is available in three different licenses, depending on how many files you need to repair and whether or not you are in a corporate environment.
- The Disk Doctors have a tool called the Outlook Mail Recovery Program
with a downloadable demo. However, they don’t appear to offer any refunds, so make sure you evaluate this one fully.
If you have any suggestions for improving this website, please contact us. We really appreciate your help and wish you the best of luck with the Inbox Repair Tool.
