Recover PST Contacts Lost Due to Corruption after Running Windows Error Checking Tool

Windows Error Checking Tool: This tool enables you to scan a selected hard drive to search and fix the following:
• System errors in the drive: Windows Error Checking tool automatically finds and fixes system errors.
• Bad sectors in that drive: With constant use of storage media, bad sectors start to come on it. These need to be fixed otherwise it can cause inaccessibility of data stored on those bad sectors. The Error Checking tool repairs these bad sectors and prevents your data.

PST Corruption after Running the Error Checking Tool: Sometimes, when the process remains unsuccessful, this Error checking tool can damage some of your important files like Outlook PST contacts files. After executing this Error checking tool, it is also possible that the size of your PST file may reduce to 0KB. It is a rare but possible happening. It might even happen that when you start Outlook, you can see the error message stating: "The xuz.pst file cannot be opened." After this error, when you check the size of your PST file, you may find it to be reduced to 0KB.

Possible Grounds of This Issue: The possible cause can be that when the Error checking tool performs operations like re-indexing, relocating objects, etc, PST files get damaged, sometimes.

Feasible Solution:

a) First Way of Solving the Problem - In Built Tool: For Outlook contacts recovery, you can take help from another Windows tool, scanpst.exe, which is a freeware email repair application that comes with Microsoft Outlook application. Perform the following steps for searching process:
o Go to Start >> Search >> For Files and Folders
o Click "All Files and Folders"
o Type scanpst.exe
o Click the "Search" button
Scanpst.exe will appear in the list of searched items. Execute the following steps to use this scanpst.exe tool for Outlook Address Book recovery:
• In the list of searched items, double click on scanpst.exe to open it
• Browse the corrupted PST file. Following steps can be performed to locate the damaged PST file:
o Select "Options" from the "Tools" menu
o Select the "Mail Setup" tab
o Click the "Email Accounts" button
o Select the "Data Files" tab
o Insert the location of PST file
• Click the "Start" button
The software will start the PST recovery process. After repairing the PST file, you can easily access that file using your Outlook profile.

b) Second Way of Solving the Problem - Third Party Tool: In cases of severe corruption, scanpst.exe fails to repair corrupted PST files and to recover Microsoft Outlook files. At that time, a third-party tool can help you recover MS Outlook files like SysTools Address Book Recovery software, a tool designed by technical experts together with skillful data recovery professionals to help you perform PST contacts recovery efficiently.