3 Steps to Run Best Free PST Repair Software in MS Outlook

ScanPST.exe is a free PST repair tool that helps you repair a corrupt or inaccessible PST file in Windows. Also known as Outlook Inbox Repair Tool, Microsoft’s ScanPST.exe tool is installed by default during the installation of MS Office with Outlook 2010 or later.

How to Repair your PST file for Free?

Outlook inbox repair tool is used as a first-aid to fix problems with the Outlook data files (.ost or .pst). And in this guide, we will show you how to find and run the free PST repair tool (ScanPST.exe) to repair Outlook PST file in three simple steps:

• Locate and launch the PST file repair tool
• Find and repair the corrupt PST file  
• Save repaired PST file data to a new PST file

Steps to Run Free PST Repair Tool (ScanPST.exe)

Outlook repair tool can help you fix following errors in Outlook 2019, 2016, 2013, and 2010, which might appear while accessing the Outlook account or importing the corrupt PST file to Outlook

• Cannot start Microsoft Outlook. Cannot open the Outlook Window

• The file c:\….\xxx.pst is not an Outlook data file (.pst)

• Something is wrong with one of your data files and Outlook needs to close

These errors are usually a result of corrupt or damaged PST file.

To run and use Inbox Repair tool (ScanPST.exe) for PST file Repair, follow these steps,

Step 1:  Launch the Outlook Inbox Repair Tool

To start the Inbox Repair Tool, you need to locate it first. The location of PST repair tool, i.e. ScanPST.exe, varies based on the Outlook and Windows version installed on the system. Following are the default locations, based on Outlook version, where you can find and launch the PST repair tool.

• In Outlook 2019,
  • 32-bit Windows: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office19\
  • 64-bit Outlook: C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office19\
• In Outlook 2016,
  • 32-bit Windows: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office16\
  • 64-bit Outlook: C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office16\
• In Outlook 2013,
  • 32-bit Windows: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office15\
  • 64-bit Outlook: C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office15\
• In Outlook 2010,
  • 32-bit Windows: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office14\
  • 64-bit Outlook: C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office14\

Once you have located the SCANPST.EXE file, right-click on it and choose ‘Run as administrator’.

Read Stellar Repair for Outlook Review on IBTimes.com by Administrators. 

Step 2: Repair the PST File

After launching the Inbox Repair Tool, click ‘Browse’ to select the corrupt Personal Folder file, i.e. PST file.

The default location of PST file in Outlook 2010 is

C:\users\YourUserName\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook\

If you are using Outlook 2013 or later, the location is

C:\users\YourUserName\Documents\Outlook Files\

Alternatively, you may go to,

• File>Info>Account Settings and click ‘Account Settings’

Click ‘Data Files’, select the PST file you want to locate and then click ‘Open File Location…’

After selecting the damaged PST file, click Start to scan the PST file for errors.

Step 3: Repair Damaged PST File

After the scan is finished, if the PST repair tool displays errors found,

• Click the ‘Make a backup of scanned file before repairing’ and then click ‘Repair’ to begin the repair process

NOTE: In case tool displays ‘Outlook Not responding’, do not close it. The tool is trying to repair the PST file and thus, taking the time. Leave your system for a while and let this Inbox Repair tool to finish the PST file repair process.

If you get a success message, try opening the Outlook and check if the errors are resolved and PST is accessible.

However, if the repair was unsuccessful or tool fails to repair PST file corruption, to repair Outlook Data Files, you can refer to this Manual guide.

Why To Use Stellar Repair for Outlook?

ScanPST.exe tool has its limitations. It may fail to repair severely corrupt or damaged PST file. Also, this free PST repair tool doesn’t work if you try to repair an encrypted or Repair large Outlook PST file.

Stellar Repair for Outlook is an advanced PST repair software that overcomes all the limitations of ScanPST.exe. This powerful software can repair severely corrupt and encrypted PST files of any file size with a few clicks.

After the repair, you can save the repaired PST file to a new PST file or any other desired format such as HTML, RTF, EML, MSG, and PDF.

The steps to repair PST file by using the software are as follows,

1. Close MS Outlook and launch the software

2. Click ‘Browse’ to choose the corrupt PST file for repair

3. Click ‘Repair’

4. After repair, you can view and preview email items within the software. To save repaired PST file to a new PST file, click ‘Save Repaired File’ under ‘Home’ tab at the top.

5. From the options, choose ‘PST’ and click ‘Browse’ to select a save location

6. Click ‘OK’ to save the repaired PST file. If you want, you can also save your mailbox items to other formats

Now browse to the original PST file location and replace the corrupt PST file with this new repaired PST file. Don’t forget to rename the file with the same as the old one.

Then start Outlook. If you have multiple profiles on Outlook, choose the profile to which PST belongs.

Conclusion

By following the three-step process to run and use Best Free PST repair Tool or Outlook Inbox Repair tool (ScanPST.exe), explained in this post, you can restore corrupt PST file and get access to all your email items. By repairing the corrupt PST file, you may also resolve common Outlook errors as discussed in this post.  

In case Microsoft’s inbuilt ScanPST.exe fails to fix the problems with the PST file, use a more advanced PST repair tool such as Stellar Repair for Outlook.

Unlike ScanPST.exe, the software can repair severely corrupt, encrypted, and large PST files with a few clicks. You can free download and use Stellar Repair for Outlook on your system to repair and preview the damaged PST files. However, to save the repaired PST to a new PST file, you need to activate the software by using a valid license key.

Also Read:

Download Inbox Repair Tool

Inbox Repair Tool Crashes

Inbox Repair Too Not Responding

Download Free Scanpst.exe

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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.