The Outlook Inbox Repair tool (aka: ScanPST.exe) is built to scan and correct corruption in Outlook personal folder/.PST files (see MS KB #287947 for basic PST repair instructions). A novel and unsupported use of the ScanPST utility is for recovery of deleted emails.

ScanPST normally recovers emails in the Deleted Items folder, but is designed to ignore email messages already emptied from that folder. Emails emptied from the Deleted Items folder may be ignored, but they are not removed permanently from a PST file until the file is compacted. By manually editing a PST file to create a corruption and then scanning the file any deleted emails that remain will be restored to the Deleted Items folder. Directions are at the Outlook Tips website.

Beware that this is an advanced fix - as if the need for a hex editor wouldn’t clue you in.

Comment on this post below

You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.