How to Repair Outlook Profiles and OST/PST files
Outlook seems to have problems with the mail files and the profiles. When they become corrupted, you can spend hours trying to fix the problem. I have found two fixes that have worked in almost every case.
Weather you are using a full blown Exchange server, or are just using a POP interface with a local OST/PST file, then these fixes should work for you. Please vote up if you like.
Step 1: Repair the PST or OST file
Microsoft has a repair utility to repair OST and PST files:
On the Start menu, click Run.
In the Open box, type:
<drive>:\Program Files\Common Files\System\Mapi\<LocaleID>\scanpst.exe
Where LocaleID is the locale identifier (LCID) for your installation of Microsoft Office. For example, the LCID for English (United States) is 1033. For a list of LCIDs, see Microsoft Office Help.
Click OK.
In the Enter the name of the file you want to scan box, type the path and file name given in the error message above.
Note You may not be able to use the Browse button to locate this file because it is located in a hidden folder.
To change the options for logging errors during the scan, click Options. If you choose Replace log or Append to log, the log file is saved to the same directory as the .pst file.
Click Start.
When the file scan is completed, select the Make a backup of scanned file before repairing check box.
Click Repair.
If the file is successfully repaired, you will see a Repair complete message. If the Inbox Repair Tool was unable to repair the file, you will need to use a backup of your file.
Step 2: If you are still having issues
1. Verify that the user has local administrator access to their computers.
2. Verify that the user’s computer is up to date with microsoft (windows and office) patches.
3. Verify that the antivirus client is excluding the local user’s temp directory.
The temp directory is usually ‘C:\Documents and Settings\<usrename>\Local Settings\Temp’.
4. Have the user log out of all email interfaces (Outlook, SWA, IMAP, POP3, SMTP, etc).
5. Delete the outlook profile
6. Uninstall outlook.
7. Cleanup the registry of all remains from the profile.
There should be no values or keys in and/or below this registry key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\windows Messaging Subsystem\Profiles
8. Delete the following files (a microsoft bug causes these files to get corrupt over time):
C:\Documents and Settings\*username*\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook\outcmd.dat
C:\Documents and Settings\*username*\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook\OutlPrnt
C:\Documents and Settings\*username*\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook\Profilename.NK2
C:\Documents and Settings\*username*\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook\Profilename.xml
C:\Documents and Settings\*username*\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook\extend.dat
C:\Documents and Settings\*username*\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\FORMS\Frmcache.dat
9. Verify that the user is logged off server from the server console
10. Run an scan on the user’s mailbox from the server console
11. Delete the user’s imap-cache and .ofs directories if they exist on the server
12. Reinstall outlook on the desktop
13. Create the new Outlook Profile for the user
15. Reconnect the user to the exchange server
16. Let messages resync to the new profile
Hope that these fixes help you out and saves you some headaches.