Resolving 'Unable to open your default e-mail folders' Outlook error after pst deflates to 0KB

Pst Repair - Microsoft Outlook .pst files are vulnerable to corruption. A .pst file can become corrupt in various situations including unexpected system shutdown, abrupt exit from Outlook, size exceeding beyond permissible 2 GB limit, application malfunction and others. As a result, you may lose crucial data and often Microsoft Outlook or .pst file exhibit strange behavior. At times, your .pst file would become a 0KB size. In such scenarios, it becomes important for you to recover the lost data by using an appropriate backup copy. However, if no clean and updated backup is available, you can resort to using inbuilt utility provided by Microsoft i.e. Inbox Repair Tool. If you are unable to fix the issue, then you must go for an advanced pst repair utility.

Consider a practical scenario, wherein, you use a Windows-XP based system and in order to fix some file system corruption issues, you decide to run CHKDSK and it goes without fail. Now, when you open Outlook, it doesn't open and you experience an error message which goes like:

"Unable to open your default e-mail folders."

Furthermore, when you check the .pst file, it turns out to be a deflated one with 0KB file size.

Cause

The root cause of the error and .pst file displaying 0KB size is corruption. Moreover, this problem could have erupted due to unsuccessful CHKDSK attempts.

Resolution

You must follow the below-mentioned Outlook pst repair steps:

Use Inbox Repair Tool (scanpst.exe) (Back up the .pst file before using it)

1)Locate the .pst file in one of the following folders:
2)Windows Vista: disk drive:\users\username\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook
3)Windows XP and Windows 2000: disk drive:\Documents and Settings\username\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook
4)Exit Outlook
5)Make sure that the Show hidden files and folders option is enabled. The Scanpst.exe is a hidden file
6)Click Start>Find or Search
7)In search box, type Scanpst.exe
8)Double-click the Scanpst.exe file to open the program
9)Click Browse to locate the .pst file
10)Click Start. The Inbox Repair Tool scans the file and give reports about the errors
11)Click OK
12)After you are through with this, you would see a list of recovered folders on the left navigation pane in Outlook.
13)Move the recovered items to a new .pst file in your profile

If you are still not able to access data or not satisfied with the results, switch to a third-party pst recovery software. Such tools repair corrupt .pst files and retrieve data by applying improved scanning algorithms.

Stellar Phoenix Outlook PST Repair is an easy-to-use and reliable application which repairs repairs damaged or corrupt PST file in minimal time and via simple steps. Compatible with Microsoft Outlook 2007, 2003, 2002 and 2000, the Outlook pst repair utility restores all PST file objects (e-mails, events, calendars) at a desired location.