The Windows Error-checking tool enables you to scan the selected hard disk drive to find and fix system errors and bad sectors in the drive. The tool automatically finds and fixes the system errors. With the continuous use of the storage media, bad sectors start coming on the storage media that need to be fixed otherwise the data stored on those bad sectors becomes inaccessible. The Error-checking tool repairs the bad sectors and protects data from being damaged. But, sometimes the Error-checking tool may damage some of the important files like PST if the process is unsuccessful. After executing the Error-checking tool, the size of PST file may get reduced to 0KB, which is very rare to be happened; but it has seen in some cases.
After executing this Windows tool to fix system errors, when you start MS Outlook, you see following error message:
"The xuz.pst file cannot be opened."
After getting the aforementioned error message, when you check the size of PST file then you may get surprised by knowing that the file size has reduced to 0KB.
Reason
You get the specified message because the PST file has been damaged. While fixing the system errors, the Error-checking tool perform operations like re-indexing, relocating objects, etc. due to which files may be damaged, sometimes.
Solution
To repair PST file, which has been damaged, you can take help of another Windows tool named scanpst.exe. The scanpst.exe is a freeware email repair application that comes with MS Outlook. Following steps help you to locate scanpst.exe to repair the damaged PST file:
Click Start > Search.
Click All Files and Folders.
Type scanpst.exe.
Click Search.
After the searching process completes, the scanpst.exe appears in the list of searched items. Now, execute the following steps to use scanpst.exe for repairing the damaged PST file:
Double-click scanpst.exe in the list of searched items.
Browse the damaged PST file. You can locate the damaged PST file by following the below given steps:
Start MS Outlook.
Select Options in the Tools menu.
Select the Mail Setup tab.
Click the Email Accounts button.
Select the Data Files tab.
Pen down the location of PST file
Click the Start button.
The software starts repairing the damaged Repair PST file. After the software completes repairing the damaged PST file, you can access the file using your Outlook profile. This is how you can repair the damaged PST file in just few minutes. However, if the corruption is severe then scanpst.exe gets failed to repair PST. At that time, Kernel for Outlook becomes a help for you.
Kernel for Outlook has been designed by data recovery professionals to help you repair the damaged PST file regardless of corruption reason and corruption extent. Whether the corruption is minor or major, the software works perfectly and recovers all email items like notes, contacts, attachments, deleted emails, etc.