How to Open Infected OST Files? - Complete Details
Feeling annoyed with Outlook error? Are you getting errors due to OST files? Users may come across many problems while opening infected OST files. Through this guide, we will know all possible ways to open infected OST files.
There are many causes behind it. All you need to do is to find out the core reason to remove the errors faced due to infected OST files. This post will help you to resolve issues of infected OST files.
Know about Offline OST file
OST is an offline Outlook data file that can’t be directly opened in any Outlook profile. This is an encrypted file created while setting up IMAP, Exchange, Office 365, Hotmail account in MS Outlook. This file is associated with a specific profile and computer on which you have configured the email account.
Reasons behind infected/corrupt OST file
There can be several reasons that can lead to the corruption of OST file. Let us know how OST file keeps getting corrupted.
Some Hardware Problems
Because of hardware issues, corruption in OST file may occur. Here are the hardware issues:
- Presence of bad sectors in hard drive where OST file is saved
- Interruption when synchronizing OST file in the server
- Abrupt closing of the system due to power failure
Software Related Issues
If there is an issue with the software, this leads to problems related to the software.
- Improper termination of Outlook leads to corruption-related issues
- Synchronization issue of Outlook OST files with the server
- Problems occur because of virus/malware infections can damage OST file
- Improper recovery of systems leads to corruption, damage and overwritten problems in OST file
Effects of OST file corruption
If the problem discussed above causes OST file infected or corrupted. MS Outlook profile and Exchange account linked with that OST file becomes inaccessible. On opening these, users may get the following errors:
- OST file is not an offline folder file
- Users can’t expand the folders
- Errors detected in .ost file
- Users can’t open Outlook file
- Face a large number of conflict items
- Default mail folders can’t be opened
- While offline, you can’t open the particular .ost file
Methods to fix infected OST file
Method 1. Scanpst.exe or scanost.exe
For opening the infected OST file in Outlook, the best and free approach is scanpst.exe & scanost.exe. This is a manual way to restore infected Outlook OST file. This is just a few steps process to retrieve corrupted OST files. Below are the steps to repair OST file using scanpst.exe/scanost.exe utility.
- Start the utility to start the conversion
- Pick the repair files option for the process
- Restore all data items to a new Outlook .pst file
Method 2. Delete and Recreate OST file
Before utilizing this method, we suggest to take a backup of corrupt/damaged OST file.
Steps to delete & recreate OST file:
- Open Run window by press Win + R keys together
- Now, type or paste %localappdata%\Microsoft\Outlook and click OK
- This will locate the available OST files on your system. Do right-click on damaged OST file and press Delete option.
- Now, open MS Outlook to recreate a new OST file.
In this manner, you can recreate your OST file to fix OST file corruption & can access data of infected OST file. However, this method is unable to restore Outlook folders or items composed in offline mode if it was not synced with MS Exchange server.
Disadvantages of manual approaches
Both methods sound simple but actually, they are difficult to execute. The scanost.exe tool is not effective in major corruption. It can only support for minor corrupted files. The second method is unbale to restore Outlook folders composed in offline mode.
Automated way to deal with issue ‘How to open infected OST files?’
By checking the manual approaches, if you still are looking for an alternate solution to repair infected OST files then you should go for third-party software. To repair Outlook OST files as they are infected or corrupted, you can use OST Recovery Software. This is the best-suited program to quickly view & open OST files as it offers users an option to save OST file data into PST file format. In addition to this, the software provides a preview of restored OST data items such as emails, contacts, notes, calendars, tasks, etc. It does not impose any restriction on OST file size to recover it. Users can make use of filters to restore desired data from infected OST file. The program is powerful enough to maintain meta-data properties and folder hierarchy while repairing infected OST files. This smart toolkit is fully compatible with all versions of Outlook and Windows.
Steps to open infected Outlook OST file with the help of this application:
- Download and start the software to repair the infected OST file.
- Use the Browse button to add infected OST file.
- The software performs proper scan and show you details of OST file.
- Now, choose PST format to save the restored data.
- Set the desired path where you want to save the recovered data.
- Hit the Process Now button & wait for the process to complete.
Conclusion
The whole post serves users with a complete solution to open the infected OST files. The best way to open and view data inside infected OST files is to use an automated program that will resolve the issue without any trouble. As manual methods may sometimes fail to deliver you exact results. However, the software is available in the demo as well as in a licensed version. Users can buy the software by checking its performance by installing the demo version.
