When the Administrator creates the Exchange Server account, then it means that it has created a mailbox that can be accessed on Outlook and its content will be saved in an EDB file. The EDB file will save the mailbox that will have the emails, contacts, notes, sent items, deleted items, notes, calendar/appointments, etc. But, when the Exchange Server is down, then all these data will be inaccessible to the user. Here, comes the usefulness of the Outlook OST file. The OST file is a complete offline file that has the exact replica of the mailbox. The user can not only access the data but configure a new email also. Although, the email will not send until the connection with Exchange Server is resumed.
Because the OST file has the offline replica of your Exchange account, so their importance increases for the safety of the data. If the OST file of you account become corrupt, then it can have some adverse effect on the business also. That’s why the Scanost tool become handy is such situations. The Scanost tool can check for the integrity of data and remove the corruption from it.
To utilize scanost.exe, user must make sure that all Outlook files along with application must be closed and then, launch scanost.exe to initiate the OST file recovery procedure. The tool will also show the message to quite Outlook before performing a scan with the OST Integrity Check Tool.
- STEP 1: After launching the application, Inbox Repair Tool window will display on user’s screen listing Outlook profiles created by user.
- STEP 2: Select the particular profile that carries corrupted OST file.
- STEP 3: Now, OST integrity check window will appear asking user to choose the folders or files to be scanned. Select the required folders.
- STEP 4: Check the Repair errors checkbox below the window to repair the selected files and folders.
- STEP 5:Click the Begin Scan button to initiate scanning of chosen OST files.
- STEP 6: Upon the completion of scanning procedure, user will receive a message on screen stating, “The scan is complete. See the OST Integrity Check message in your Deleted Items folder for more details.”
However, this method may not prove to be successful all the time as scanost.exe works only when files have been corrupted due to synchronization issue. Besides this, it has few more drawbacks such as:
- Cannot work on severe corruption issues (hardware issues and software issues)
- Not incorporated in MS Outlook 2010 and later version to fix OST file issues
- May provide minimal output ins some synchronization issues
- Can affect the integrity of already corrupted OST files
To resolve aforementioned cases Microsoft expert advice utilizing professional Kernel for OST to PST tool. While choosing external source user must test its credibility by utilizing its trial version as it would help user in better decision-making. These third party tools convert corrupted OST files in PST format to obtain the lost data.
