subject: Ediscovery Best Practices: Repairing A Corrupted Outlook Pst File [print this page] We like to believe that there will never be any problems with the data that we preserve, collect and process for eDiscovery purposes. Sometimes, however, critical data may be difficult or impossible to use. Perhaps key files are password protected from being opened and the only way to open them is to crack the password. Or, perhaps a key file may be corrupted. If that file is an Outlook Personal Storage Table file, that file corruption could literally make tens of thousands of documents unavailable for discovery unless the file can be repaired.
We recently had a case where 40% of the collection was contained in 2 corrupt Outlook PST files. Had we not been able to repair those files, we would have been unable to access nearly half of the collection that needed to be reviewed for responsiveness in the case.
Fortunately, there is a repair tool for Outlook designed to repair corrupted PST files. Its called SCANPST.EXE. Its an official repair tool that is included in Office 2010. As a very useful utility, you might think that SCANPST would be located in the Microsoft Office 2010 Tools folder within the Microsoft Office folder in Program files. But, youd be wrong. Instead, youll have to open Windows Explorer and navigate to the C:Program FilesMicrosoft OfficeOffice14 folder to find the SCANPST.EXE utility.
Double-click this file to open Microsoft Outlook Inbox Repair Tool. The utility will prompt for the path and name of the PST file. There is also an Options button to enable you to log activity to a new log file, append to an existing log file or choose not to write to a log file. Before you start, youll need to close Outlook and all mail-enabled applications.
Once ready, press the Start button and the application will begin checking for errors. When the process is complete, it should indicate that it found errors on the corrupted PST file, along with a count of folders and items found in the file. The utility will also provide a check box to make a backup of the scanned file before repairing. ALWAYS make a backup you never know what might happen during the repair process. Click the Repair button when ready and the utility will hopefully repair the corrupted PST file.
If SCANPST.EXE fails to repair the file, then there are some third party utilities available that may succeed where SCANPST failed. If all else fails, you can hire a data recovery expert, but that can get very expensive. Hopefully, you dont have to resort to that.
By repairing the PST file, you are technically changing the file, so if the PST file is discoverable, it will probably be necessary to disclose the corruption to opposing counsel and the intent to attempt to repair the file to avoid potential spoliation claims.
So, what do you think? Have you encountered corrupted PST files in discovery?
