Recover Emails from password protected pst files

Recover password protected pst files

Unlike Microsoft Exchange server which stores the emails and all other Outlook related data on the Exchange server, Outlook stores all this data on a Personal Storage Folder better known as the pst file. The pst file is not only used for storage of emails, but also for storage of other important Outlook data like Contacts, Journals, notes, folders etc. Outlook also makes use of ost files to maintain offline availability of these Outlook items.

 

A fixed block based allocation scheme is used by the pst and the ost files for storage of data. The pst file maintains details about the allocated and non allocated blocks. The pst file adjusts the file size automatically with respect to the addition and deletion of emails. Though the size of the pst file increases when a new mail is received, it is not the same when an email is deleted. This is because, when an email is deleted, the disk space occupied by the email is de-allocated, and can now be overwritten by new data. This leads to an increase in the size of the pst file.

 

It is at this point, that the pst file needs to be compacted, to prevent loss of data. You can use the in-built Auto Archive option to compact the pst file. You can also apply password protection to these compressed pst files. This avoids loss of data due to modification by unauthorized users. Still, if by any means, loss of data takes place then software to fix corrupted PST file can repair the PST file and can restore the data back. You can follow the steps given below to apply password protection,

 

• Click on the File tab and then select the Account settings option.
• Select the pst file for which you want to apply the password from the Data Files tab and then click on Settings.
• Now, click on Change Password. Once you click on Change Password, the Change Password dialog box is displayed as shown in the figure below.

 

 

• Enter the new password in the New Password field and enter it again in the Verify Password field.
• Save the password in the password list, double-click on OK, and then click Close.

However, Microsoft itself admits that this password protection can be easily bypassed by making use of third party software, and hence the protection provided is minimal. In such a case there is every chance of your Outlook data being tampered with, resulting in loss of valuable Outlook data.

 

In such a scenario, it is recommended that you make use of a trustworthy pst recovery software to recover the lost data. Repair MS Outlook PST software lets you recover password protected pst files completely. This Outlook recovery software lets you recover pst files even from the most severe data loss scenario with ease.

 

 

You can follow the steps given below to repair the corrupted pst file,

 

Step 1: Use the Start Menu>Programs option or double click the desktop shortcut to launch the Repair Outlook PST application. The Main Screen is displayed, as shown in Figure 1. There are different options namely, "Open PST File", "Find PST File" and "Select Outlook Profile" present on the main window.

 

Figure 1 : Main Window

 

Step 2: Select "Open PST File" option if you know the exact location of the password protected PST file. If you are not sure of the location of the PST file, make use of the "Find PST File" option and proceed to Step 3. If you want to select the PST file on basis of the various Outlook profiles, click on the "Select Outlook Profile" option

 

Step 3: Once you select the "Find PST File" option a new window is displayed, where you need to select the drive / partition on which you want to search for the PST file. Once you select the drive / partition, click the "Find" button. The software scans the entire partition / drive, and displays the found PST files as shown in Figure 2. Select the PST file and click on "Next" to go to the next step

 

Figure 2 : Select PST File

 

Step 4: From the new window tahti displayed, you need to select the scanning method and the destination folder to save the recovered Outlook data. Select "Normal Scan" option and use the "Browse" button to select the destination folder on which the recovered data will be saved. Once this is finished, select the "Repair" button to start the repair process as shown in Figure 3

 

Figure 3 : Select Scan Option and Destination Location

 

Step 5: Clicking the "Repair" button, starts the repair proces. The software repairs the password protected PST file, and recovers all the data into a new PST file in the selected destination drive. The restored PST file is similar to the original PST file. All the recovered Outlook data is displayed as shown in Figure 4.

 

Figure 4 : Recovered Outlook Data