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Last Answered:
Apr 17 2008 11:01 AM GMT
by Stoinov
ost2pst free but only for office 2002 and older
for 2003-2007 there is no free solution that I am aware of.
There is a way to resolve it if you have access to exchange:
1. Close Outlook
2. find the ost and make a backup copy
3. From "Mail" in the "Control Panel" - re add your exchange server account make sure you tick the "Cached Exchange mode" box.
4. Open outlook - it should connect you to your Exchange account (but this doesn't have all my mail in - see above) - it'll go through and make you a fresh copy of the ost.
5. Once it's done this - Choose "Work offline" from the file menu - to be safe I also physically disconnected the machine from the network.
6. Close Outlook
7. Replace the newly created .ost with the original one. They have to have the same name - and maybe the same Exchange user account.
8. Open Outlook - make sure you're still "Working Offline" - you should now have your "Personal Folder" (pst) open and your working offline "Exchange Mailbox" (ost) open. - you can then copy folders / contents of folders from one to the other (from ost to pst).
Calendar & Contact items - it can be difficult to select all of these - so change the "View" to "by Category" - you'll then be able to "Select All" (Ctrl + A) - and then drag / drop them to where you want.
Also here is another method that I haven't tested but give it a try:
1. Backup ost file(s)
2. Rename outlook.ost to outlook.pst
3. Use scanpst.exe from Outlook 2002 (in C:\Program Files\Common Files\System\Mapi\1033) to repair outlook.pst
(You can always copy scanpst.exe from an alternative installation, include MAPI32.DLL and GAPI32.DLL)
4. Rename outlook.pst back to outlook.ost
5. Run OST2PST which will then convert the file successfully to outlook.pst
6. Outlook can then open the outlook.pst file