# MS Outlook - PST file problem



## tanjimh

When my client tries to inport his archived files, error comes up:
"Cannot open this item. The messaging interface has returned an unknown error. If the problem persists, retstart outlook. Access is denied. Make sure the disk is not full or write-protected and the file is not being used."

Tried to copy pst file while my logged in.
Error: "File cannot be accessed. Cannot copy personal folder. The process cannot access the file because another process has locked a portion of the file."

I logged-in to his PC as a Administrator and tried to copy the file.
Error: Cannot copy the file. Cycle redundency error.

Please help.


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## Bob Cerelli

Rather than importing, which I have seen come up with this error, start Outlook, then File / Open and select the PST file you are trying to import. Then just copy what you want from the old to the new file.


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## DoubleHelix

Where is the PST stored? A network drive? A CD?


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## Bob Cerelli

Or better yet on the hard drive.


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## andrewpinney

The problem of Outlook.PST file been locked when apparently there are no programs that you could imagine should be using it is one that I experienced frustratingly for some time when I was trying to do backups that included outlook.PST.

I found the solution on another tech page, download a small free package called unlocker, from http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/System-Miscellaneous/Unlocker.shtml

This allows you to see which other processes are locking that file and kill the process. It my Copernic search indexing engine on my laptop was locking up the Outlook.PST file even though MS Outlook was closed.

If you have a problem only with Outlook.PST and it seems to be consistently locked by the same process, once you've identified that process, you could then uninstall the Unlocker and in future when it happens, kill that process using control/alt/delete, go to the process tab and end the process that was locking up the Outlook.PST, whenever you want to move or copy your Outlook.PST file.


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## andrewpinney

in my case it was my personal Outlook.pst file on my local hard drive, that I had moved from the windows default directory of C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook to something under My Documents, so that always gets synchronise to my backup drive.


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## djangojazz

tanjimh said:


> When my client tries to inport his archived files, error comes up:
> "Cannot open this item. The messaging interface has returned an unknown error. If the problem persists, retstart outlook. Access is denied. Make sure the disk is not full or write-protected and the file is not being used."
> 
> Tried to copy pst file while my logged in.
> Error: "File cannot be accessed. Cannot copy personal folder. The process cannot access the file because another process has locked a portion of the file."
> 
> I logged-in to his PC as a Administrator and tried to copy the file.
> Error: Cannot copy the file. Cycle redundency error.
> 
> Please help.


First of all Outlook sucks for this very issue that often happens to many. Outlook is set up to be a relation (PST File) of a relation (Profile) to a relation (Account set up to receive email with pop and smtp). It is needlessly complex, no matter how many programs you set up to get rid of errors Outlook is still going to need a data source. Go to start>control panel>Mail to see my attached. If something is not there in data profiles you need to add it. If it won't let you(I have had that happen recently) you need to reinstall Outlook! It's a dumb program yet so many people use it because they have never tried alternatives you need to learn it eventually. Outlook 2007 is even more complex and has parts of Buz contact manager in it, which is a godawful program that slows down everything in your mail client.

Three things to try:

1. Go to Start>Control Panel>Mail>Data Profiles and "add" it there then rename it "default" AFTER renaming the default their to something like "default old.pst". It fixes things sometimes believe it or not.
2. Do this manually if the "add" under data profiles no longer works. 
C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook

For this make sure you are the admin and can select hidden folders under file options in tools if not already selected. Do the same thing as above.

3. If this doesn't work try deleting a profile or two and go up the tree deleting things and recreating after backups till something works. Generally if you get a "Error: the object you are looking for has been moved or delete. The referenced data point does not exist." Or anything of the like you can go to MS support and look for that error message and spend the hour or two following directions to fix it or just delete outlook with a copy of the pst would be faster.

If you did option 3 I would suggest testing on a fresh outlook on a totally different machine that the pst fie could work. Generally in my experience it will but I am not one to tell people to destroy things without first testing a backup. If the backup works blow up outlook and recreate it which is much faster than going to MS support and looking up their error and troubleshooting them. Generally that process leads to another error created of another error created because Outlook has so many relations it's easier to just start fresh. Or better yet ax Outlook and directly manage your mail or use an email client that gives you more interactive control and user access.


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## Bob Cerelli

djangojazz said:


> Outlook is still going to need a data source


Yes, this is similar to other e-mail programs. They need a data source.

To copy the PST file, simply log on but don't start Outlook. If it is started, start the task manager and make sure the OUTLOOK.EXE process is not still running. Find the PST file and copy it.

No need to create new profiles, deleting profiles, to going up any tree or even going to the Control Panel. Guess one would have a negative opinion of Outlook if they needed to do all that just to import information from a PST file. Fortunately it is not necessary.


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## ChrisB600

> To copy the PST file, simply log on but don't start Outlook. If it is started, start the task manager and make sure the OUTLOOK.EXE process is not still running. Find the PST file and copy it.


 But that's the whole point, Bob - sometimes something in OL gets all squirly and you can't do that. That's when you have to do (some of) the stuff DjangoJazz mentioned. He may have been a little harsh in his criticism of OL but his facts are not wrong; sometimes the only (or fastest) solution is to uninstall Outlook, reboot and start again. Of course if you do this too often you could run into complications with the MS activation but that's another story for a different day!

One workaround to get temporary access to the .pst file is to log off and log on as another (admin) user, but once you log on as the owner of that pst file again the problem returns. This means that if you for instance have PFBackup installed your backups never work.


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## Bob Cerelli

What is the whole point? Quite a few have been made so far.


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