Pst File Corrupt Went From ~2Gb to 0Kb

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around a user's experience with a corrupted PST file in Outlook 2003, which unexpectedly changed from approximately 2GB to 0KB. Participants explore potential recovery options and the implications of file size limits.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Technical explanation
  • Debate/contested

Main Points Raised

  • The original poster (OP) describes an error message indicating that the set of folders could not be expanded, followed by the file being recognized as 0KB.
  • One participant inquires about the existence of backups as a potential recovery option.
  • Another suggests checking for a shadow copy of the file to restore an earlier version, indicating that this might help recover lost data.
  • A participant discusses the implications of file size limits in Outlook, proposing that an overflow could cause the file size to appear negative, which might explain the sudden change to 0KB.
  • One participant expresses skepticism about the OP's return to the thread, suggesting the post may be a setup for spam.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants do not reach a consensus on the best recovery method, and there are differing views on the nature of the OP's post, with some questioning its authenticity.

Contextual Notes

The discussion does not resolve the technical issues surrounding the corruption of the PST file or the potential for recovery, leaving several assumptions unaddressed.

jeremiel
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I have outlook 2003. I opend it this morning and received an error message that the set of folders could not be expanded. So I closed the .pst file and then tried to reopen it. I then received an error that outlook did not recognize the file type. I then went to where the file is located and to my the surprise the file size is now 0Kb. I last successfully opend it on Thursday last week and it was working fine. I imagine it was aproaching 2Gb. Any chance this can be repaired? Any suggestions would be appreciated.
 
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Backups?
 
Try and see if you can restore a shadow copy of the file from an earlier date.
previous-versions-1.png

I shamelessly stole this image from another site on the internet. Find out where you pst file is, then right click on it and see if there's an older version that you can restore it to.
You might get lucky and not lose much data.
 
jeremiel said:
I imagine it was aproaching 2Gb.
The largest 32-bit signed number is 2 147 483 647. If you add 1, you get -2 147 483 648 (and an overflow). If Outlook uses signed number for the file size, the file size suddenly went negative!
 
OP hasn't been back since posting that message. This is simply a setup for spam.

Thread closed.
 
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