How to Retrieve Outlook Data After System Crash

System crashes are unpredictable and may happen due to many reasons. Some common reasons behind system crash are malware infection, failing hard drives, corrupted Windows Registry, etc. A system crash is one of the major causes that may damage or corrupt the Outlook data files – PST and OST. Thus, you’re not able to access your Outlook data stored in these files. In this post, we’ll discuss the solutions to retrieve Outlook data after a system crash, which may have damaged or corrupted the OST file.

Instant Solution: Use Stellar Converter for OST to extract important data from inaccessible OST after a system crash. It’s safe, easy to use, and can extract all items from OST- emails, attachments, calendars, etc.

How to Retrieve Data from Outlook OST Data File?

1. Repair OST File by using ScanPST

If your Outlook is configured with IMAP account or Exchange server, this means the Outlook data is stored in OST file on your local storage. In case, the OST file gets damaged or corrupted after system crash, you can use ScanPST.exe to repair the OST file. This Microsoft’s inbuilt utility check for errors and attempt to repair the file. Prior to Outlook 2010, Microsoft has provided a separate OST repair tool – ScanOST.exe. Now, the ScanPST can be used to repair both PST and OST files.

2. Retrieve Outlook Data by using Third Party Tool

If the Outlook OST Data File turns orphaned or become inaccessible due to system crash, you can just recreate the OST file by deleting the old OST file and connecting to your Exchange mailbox. If there is some data in the old OST file that was not synchronized with the online mailbox, you can’t recover the data by recreating the OST file. Instead, you have to convert the old OST file into PST format and then import the PST file into Outlook. You can use a dedicated conversion tool such as Stellar Converter for OST to convert OST to PST easily and quickly. This is an impressive solution as it provides easy steps, fast processing, and reliability.

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Reference: https://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/43966.microsoft-outlook-stellar-ost-to-pst-converter.aspx

To use Stellar Converter for OST to repair a corrupt OST file or convert inaccessible or orphaned OST file, follow the given steps:

Steps to convert OST files are as follows:

• Launch Stellar Converter for OST software.
• From the main interface, click Browse and select the location of the OST file. If you don’t know the file’s location, you can search it by clicking Find

• After selecting the OST file, click ‘Convert’.

A dialog box will pop highlighting the list of all the converted files.
• Go to the Preview window. From the list of all the recoverable files enlisted in a three-pane structure, under the root node, choose the desired file and preview it.

•Next, select the files you want to convert
• Go to File menu and select the Save Converted File option.
•Enter the location where you want to save the converted file and click OK.

Your OST File is now converted into a PST File and is ready to use. Now you can import the PST into the Outlook account

Steps to Import PST file into Outlook: Outlook 2019/2016/2013/2010

• Launch Microsoft Outlook
• Go to File >Open & Export > Import/Export
          Import and Export Wizard window will appear.
• Select Import from another program or file and click Next
• Click Outlook Data File and click Next
• Click Browse and find the PST file (converted from OST), and then click Next
• Select the folders that you want to import and click Finish

For Microsoft: Outlook 2007/2003

• Launch Microsoft Outlook
• Go to File >Open & Export > Import/Export
•.Import and Export Wizard window will appear
• Select Import from another program or file and click Next
• Click Personal Folder File and click Next
• Click Browse and find the PST File, and then click Next
• Select the folders that you want to import, and click Finish

Now, you have successfully imported the converted OST file into Outlook.

What to do if the system is inaccessible after crash?

Many times, when a system crashes, you can’t restart the system. In that situation, if you want to retrieve your Outlook data, you can take out the hard drive from the system, connect it to another functional system and copy the data from the hard drive to the new system. You can directly import the PST file into Outlook to access its contents. If you want to access the OST file on another system or account, you need to first convert it into PST. The recommended way to convert OST to PST is by using Stellar Converter for OST.  

Conclusion

The outlook is the most extensively used email client application and it can hold a large amount of data. However, just like other applications, it is prone to corruption in events such as system crash or malware infection. If your Outlook data files get corrupted or become inaccessible after system crash, you can use the techniques discussed in this post to retrieve Outlook data and import the repaired files into Outlook.

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About The Author

Eric Simson

Eric Simson is an Email Platform Consultant and is associated with Stellar Data Recovery from last 6 years. He writes about the latest technology tips and provides custom solutions related to MS Outlook, MS Exchange Server, Office 365, and many other Email Clients & Servers.