Resolving '.pst can no longer be accessed...' Error

For most of the Outlook users, its data file called .pst file is important, as it stores months or years of e-mails, business-critical contacts, calendar entries, notes, and other data that the user cannot loose. When the file is so important, corruption of the file can bring serious repercussions. An Outlook PST can get corrupt for reasons like, unexpected power outage, virus attack, network file sharing, PST 2 GB size problems, and more. The general solution to Pst Repair corrupted due to these reasons is to run Inbox Repair Tool.

For more clarification, let's say you use MS Outlook. To your surprise, Outlook might prompt the given error message when you try to start MS Outlook.

"The message file file_path/Outlook.pst can no longer be accessed because it has been damaged
by another application."

This error has been observed when Outlook is opened on the computer and you open another application (such as Outlook Express) which has some common files to share with MS Outlook. Alternatively, the same error can also appear if a third-party program interacts with MS Outlook. The error suggests that Outlook PST has been corrupted by another application and needs repair.

User Action

Since PST file is corrupted, you should repair it using MS Outlook utility called 'Inbox Repair Tool'. This tool is accessible through a program file named 'Scanpst.exe' and fixes most of the corruption-related concerns with a corrupted PST. To run the tool, the steps are as follows:

1)Close Outlook
2)Click My Computer > Tools > Folder Options > View > and make sure 'Show hidden files and folders' option is enabled
3)Click 'Start' and point to 'Search'
4)Type 'Scanpst.exe' in the name box for files and folders and click 'Search'
5)Double-click the file to start 'Inbox Repair Tool'
6)Browse to the location of your PST and click 'Repair'

Performing the above steps should repair your corrupted PST. But if the problem continues, you need a third-party Outlook PST Repair tool. These software can scan a corrupted Outlook PST, Repair Outlook PST, and restore the file contents to a safe location.

Stellar Phoenix Outlook PST Repair is a comprehensive utility with advanced features that can scan a corrupted PST file. This Outlook PST Repair software creates a new PST file having the content of the original file, and doesn't change the original file. Supporting MS Outlook 2007, 2003, 2002, and 2000, the software can also recover deleted e-mails.