Have you faced Outlook data file damage and want to know how you can how to prevent PST file corruption? It is a common sight to have corruption in your PST files. Outlook saves its data items on the user’s computer in the PST format. It is capable of holding emails, contacts, calendars, etc. This file can go corrupt due to some random reasons and may lead to a permanent loss of your data.
How to Prevent PST File Corruption?
Corruptions are sometimes inevitable and you can do nothing to prevent that. But that is not the case mostly, corruption can be avoided if you take the correct measures as given below:
- Do Not Save PST on Servers or Network Drive: Experts advise saving the PST files on a local drive and not on servers. Network drives fail to support the structure of PST files and hence it is a bad practice to save them on servers. Another faulty reason is its access to multiple users simultaneously that leads to serious PST damage.
- Oversized PST Files: This is the most obvious advice. A PST file exceeding 2 GB is prone to corruption. Different versions of Outlook support different PST sizes, however, you should still maintain the habit of keeping the PST files limited to 2 GB. Try removing duplicate items or not-so-important data from the mailbox to make the PST compact.
- Do Not Process Multiple Emails Simultaneously: Outlook is an advanced utility that can process 10,000 emails easily, but, more than that can lead to the lockdown of MS Outlook. When such a situation arises, Outlook shuts down abnormally and this improper termination of Outlook is bad for a PST file’s health.
- Improper Outlook Termination: Not closing Outlook the normal way is listed under the improper methods. This includes terminating off Outlook using the Task Manager. One should never do that unless it is necessary. Always close Outlook the right way to avoid PST file corruption.
- Do Not Install Unnecessary Outlook Add-Ins: If you have previously installed add-ins and facing PST file corruption, try removing them. The unnecessary installation of add-ins is a major risk to your PST files. You must update them regularly and check them if they are causing any trouble.
- Update Your Antivirus: Antivirus can affect the email processing present in the PST files. A slow antivirus can slow down the scanning process of emails too. It is important to update your antivirus to prevent PST file corruption.
- Take Timely Backups: Even if you take all corrective measures, corruption of PST files is sometimes inevitable. To overcome such situations, you must take a backup of these PST files so that you can restore them if you encounter any issues. It is always better the prepare than be sorry later.
- Properly Turn Off Your Computer: Sudden power cut/failure is the major reason why computers shut down suddenly. This often leads to corruption if you were working with Outlook and its PST files. Make sure you turn off your system in to correct way to avoid such circumstances.
How to Repair Corrupt PST Files?
Outlook offers the inbox repair tool to its Windows users that can scan and repair the PST files. The scanpst.exe (inbox repair tool) browses the files, scans them, and then repairs their damage. However, it comes with its drawbacks and that is its inability to repair PST files exceeding 2 GB size. Also, you can only repair files having a low level of file corruption. Therefore, if your files have a distorted structure, the inbox repair tool fails here.
If you too are facing problems with this utility, you must opt for SysTools software to repair PST file that overcomes all limitations of the manual method. It comes with several benefits such as:
- Ability to repair PST files of all levels of corruption
- It repairs and exports the PST files into multiple formats
- Can repair the lost & deleted data from PST
- Capable of repairing PST that are encrypted with passwords
- Can decrypt S/MIME & OpenPGP encryption from messages
Read More: How to Export Contacts from OLM File?
Conclusion
In this article, we have learned various methods to prevent PST file corruption. You must follow each step and implement them to avoid any future file corruption. If you have encountered any damage, then you can choose any of the methods i.e., manual & automatic ways mentioned here.
