The PST Archiving feature allows you to divide your email messages between two or more PSTs, each manageable and accessible through Outlook. An archive PST is prone to similar reasons, due to which a default PST can get corrupt. To repair the damaged archive PST, you should use the Outlook built-in Inbox Repair Tool. If this fails, you should opt restoring from a good backup or using a PST Recovery application.

For instance, consider a practical situation, described below:

1.You archive the Outlook PST file and store the resultant file on a network drive

2.You transfer the archive.pst on your computer

3.When you try to open this archive.pst file in MS Outlook as File | Open | Outlook Data File , it fails to open and displays the following error message:

“The file drive_letter:\archive.pst is not a personal folders file.” Cause

The above behavior indicates that Outlook is unable to read the archive.pst file because it is corrupt. The file doesn't have valid personal storage folder structure.

Outlook PST is not supported over any network link. The PSTs are designed for local message store. The network links use network-access-driven methods, which is contrary to file-access-driven methods used by PST. When the network traffic is not apt, chances are that the file may catch errors. For this reason, an archive.pst can get corrupt if saved on a network drive.

Solution

Outlook Inbox Repair Tool (Scanpst.exe) is a utility that you can use in this case to repair your damaged archive.pst. It is highly recommended that you backup the damaged PST first as running the tool can bring irrecoverable damages to the file. To run the tool, follow these steps:

1.Quit from the application

2.Scanpst.exe is a hidden file. So, make sure that the 'Show hidden files and folders' setting is enabled in the folder options.

3.Click Start | Search or Find and type 'Scanpst.exe' in the Search box.

4.Double-click to open the file and browse to the location of your damaged archive.pst

5.Click 'Start', which starts the recovery process

6.Try to open the file in question again. The corruption problem should not exist.

If Scanpst.exe cannot repair the file, you should restore it from backup. When no valid PST backup is available, you need to use a Microsoft Outlook Recovery tool. These are powerful PST Recovery Tool that can repair a corrupted PST, irrespective of file size, nature of corruption (should be logical though), and extent of damage.

Stellar Phoenix Outlook PST Repair is a safe and advanced tool that repairs a corrupted PST created with Outlook 2007, 2003, 2002, and 2000. The comprehensive PST Recovery Software is designed to run powerful scanning algorithms. The software can recover all emails, notes, contacts, journal, calendar etc.