SOLVED Outlook 2007 issues

[I Am Not A Number]

Hello everyone

Just joined this very smart looking forum in the hope that someone can help me solve a problem with Outlook 2007 that has been bugging me now for two weeks!

My system is a Toshiba laptop, running W10, and for MS Office I've got a mixture of Office 2003 and 2007. I generally only use Excel, Outlook and occasionally, Word. Excel and Word are still on 2003 with just Outlook on 2007, although other elements of the suites are installed.

Two weeks ago I found Outlook running exceptionally slowly. It took about 5 minutes to load up and then each change of folder, or clicking to view a message etc would take another minute. At the same time it was slowing my whole machine down.

I checked for viruses and malware and found nothing. I ran chkdsk and found nothing. I downloaded and ran SeaTools for Windows which found nothing.

On attempting to run scanpst.exe, it failed on the first phase of 8, showing 58% complete and the error

An unexpected error prevented access to this file. Use a disk error checking program to check the disk and then try again using the Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 Inbox Repair Tool again

I considered a System Restore, but the only one on my system was after the problem started...

Thinking that a fresh installation of Outlook would be likely, I began copying all of the files in the storage folder. C:\Users\****\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook to an external drive, but then failed as everything bar Outlook.pst copied out. I get a message for this as

Can't read from the source file or disk

It kind of looks like something else is accessing and not releasing Outlook.pst, but multiple reboots and a check with Resource Monitor suggests not. Also a third party app called LockHunter is not showing it in use.

Microsoft Office Diagnostics (run externally or very slowly through Outlook) has found no issues. If I run "Repair" from the source disk, it's reporting as "Repairing Microsoft Office 2007", and finally saying "Repair successful"

Today I decided to bite the bullet and completely uninstall Office 2007. Just done this and reinstalled from the original disk, and... The problem is still there!

I'm at my wits end with this now. I've pretty much spent all of the last 14 days trying to fix it and got nowhere. I had assumed that a fresh installation was going to sort things out and was disappointed when it didn't. Should I have deleted the entire contents of AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook and even perhaps the related registry keys before the reinstall?

If anyone can suggest anything further that I can try I would be really grateful!

Dave

 

[Bighorn]

One thing to be aware of is that Office 2007 was the first to have a new file format, e.g. Word was .docx, Excel was .xlsx, etc., and has continued to the latest. The older Office 2003 was the last to use the original formats. Office 2007 and later can still work with the older formats but Office 2000, 2002/XP and 2003 needed a Compatibility Pack to work with the newer format. Could be an issue with the differences between the 2 programs, I had to remove FrontPage 2003 because of upgrading to Office 2010. The Office programs did more interfacing with Windows than other brands and an update may have caused issues.

 

[I Am Not A Number]

Hi Bighorn

Thanks for the reply!

Yes, I've always stuck with the older formats as I have loads of files in .xls and .doc etc. Most of my stuff is Excel and I'm happy to stick with the older format as my files are not shared and I am comfortable with the setup (plus I have loads of VBA which might, or might not, work with the later formats!)

When I ended up with 2003 and 2007 on my system, I chose Outlook 2007 for emails. It's been working fine for maybe 6 years, but suddenly went wrong two weeks ago. I've made no changes to either 2003 or 2007 installs in all that time, so I have no idea what suddenly went wrong!

 

[Bighorn]

I don't often use Microsoft Office even though I have 2010, 2013 and 2016 on different computers, my E-Mail is Webmail/Online. The Notebook with 2016 was given me for salvage in lieu of payment, works good after cleanup. I've put the free LibreOffice on a number of computers but it doesn't have anything comparable to Publisher and Outlook.

 

[Trouble]

Outlook 2007 for emails. It's been working fine for maybe 6 years, but suddenly went wrong two weeks ago.

Any idea as to the size of the .pst file associated with your Outlook 2007 program?
I believe there is a max file size set at 20 gigabytes, but....
It's been reported that a .pst file half that size (10 gigabytes) can start acting a little bit wonky

Two weeks ago I found Outlook running exceptionally slowly. It took about 5 minutes to load up and then each change of folder, or clicking to view a message etc would take another minute.

and ultimately become corrupted.

On attempting to run scanpst.exe, it failed on the first phase of 8, showing 58% complete and the error

It sounds like that may be your issue
OR
There's a bad spot on your drive at the particular location(s) where your .pst file is stored.

 

[I Am Not A Number]

Hi Trouble

My outlook.pst file is 603,153kb, so doesn't look dangerously huge!

I've done a couple of scans of the HDD and nothing is showing as being a problem. My frustration now is that an complete uninstall and reinstall of Office 2007 hasn't cured the problem - I was viewing this as my last resort (once I'd managed to find the disks!) and it's just put me back where I was If there was a disk issue, would the reinstall put it back in exactly the same place? Surely this is unlikely?

 

[Trouble]

My outlook.pst file is 603,153kb, so doesn't look dangerously huge!

Nope.... that size .pst file shouldn't represent a problem, however....
Your comment above regarding "Can't read from the source file or disk" is worrisome.

I've done a couple of scans of the HDD and nothing is showing as being a problem.

Not sure how you performed these "scans" or what you may have used, but try this one time

Click the start button and simply begin typing the word cmd
When it appears at the top of the search list, right click it and choose "Run as Administrator"
THEN
In the admin command prompt type
chkdsk C: /R
hit enter and answer Yes “Y” when prompted and reboot.

This will likely take a long time depending on the size of the disk and to some extent its’ contents, do not interrupt it. When complete check the log file in Event Viewer for results (Right click the start button and select Event Viewer from the context menu) expand Windows Logs and highlight / select Application, click Action on the menu bar and select Find and type chkdsk and hit enter. Check near the bottom of the report for anything indicating KBs in bad sectors.

 

[I Am Not A Number]

Thanks for this suggestion Trouble!

I've managed to get a semblance of a working Outlook, by creating a new profile for Outlook from Control Panel, which then allowed me to re-import my archive data. There's a few bits missing and the folders are all over the place and will need sorting, but the main thing is, Outlook is operational once more!

Clearly something went awry in the first place though, so I'll still be running chkdsk C: /R later!

 

[davehc]

I am not sure if this is the case with 2007, but 2016 and onward store the setup in
"C:\Users\Your username\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook\(e-mail address removed)"
If you delete this file, with outlook closed, and then restart outlook, it will setup a brand new copy for you.

 

[I Am Not A Number]

I think it's similar in 2007, with just the last element being "outlook.pst"

As mentioned, I've managed to create the new profile and am in the process of re-importing from archives. I say that as a plural as the .pst file set up is very messy and seems to have multiple elements, all of which are very similarly named and seem to be being updated every time Outlook is started, which makes trying to identify which is which very tricky!