Corrupt Outlook PST file

Having problems with Outlook and the pst file, it wont let me copy or back it up. The hard disk seems to just go in a rhythmic cycle of reading and nothing happens - often resulting in a 'cannot read from source disk' error.

This sounded to me like a hard disk problem so I ran a scandisk and nothing showed up - all other aspects of the machine operate fine.

I've also tried using scanpst to run a check but that too throws up read errors.

It wont let me export the thing either, complaining about disk write permissions.

Today I tried to delete a bunch of stuff to make the pst file smaller (it is about 900 MB) but it wont empty the deleted items folder and gives me the cyclic redundancy error.

I can still use the program to send/receive email.

Any suggestions as to how to salvage this file and my emails would be gratefully received!

There are a couple of things you can do. One is to go to start > run > and type in outlook /safe. This will start outlook in safe mode and will possibly let you empty the deleted items folder. If this does not work, boot your pc into safe mode and repeat the process. This usually works when al else fails.

While you are in safe mode attach a flash drive or external drive and se if you can then copy the .pst file to it. Make sure in task manager there is no outlook running in the process tab. As a check for you drive, I would test the drive with the manufactuer's diagnostics. It sounds like you may have a bad drive.