.pst not recognized

[raebabe]

I have a user who came in today and found that all of her mail was gone from Outlook 2003. I searched her machine for a .pst and found it in the default folder but when I tried adding it back to Outlook for her to retreive her mail it didn't recognize that there was even a .pst there. I checked the size of the .pst and it's at 62 MB so it's big but not huge. I tried running a SCAPST on it anyway and I browsed to the desktop (where I moved the .pst to for now) and there was no .pst there. Do any of you have any ideas on how to get Outlook to recognize this file as a PST becasue now in properties it states it's an, "Office Data File," but Opens with an, "Unknown application." She is at a work stoppage until I can get this so any advice would be greatful.

I just went into the properties and changed the application from, "Unknown," to, "Microsoft Office Outlook," and it still didn't recognize it as a PST when I tried adding it to Outlook even after I rebooted.

 

[RealBlackStuff]

Don't know if this works, but give that file another name like testemail.pst, then 'import' it into her Outlook.

 

[raebabe]

I checked the size of her hard drive and it was full to I moved some of the programs to the other drive and tried it again. It still didn't recognize that the file was a pst. Then I had the user put it on another machine and tried it from there and it still didn't recognize it even after I changed the file type to Outlook. Also, when she logs onto some other machines her mail will show up for about 5 seconds then it dissapears as if it's migrating to the PST but the mail isn't really there because you can't open it. I'm officially stuck.

Also, I just tried the whole testmail.pst idea and I got nothing still

 

[RealBlackStuff]

On someone else's PC, try to open another email user/account in Outlook. Then try and import that file there, if can get it across (e.g. with a USB key, or network)

EDIT: I don't have Outlook (nor OE) so I'm just trying things that MAY help...

 

[raebabe]

I tried that as well and still I get nothing. I'm going to try looking at the other machine in the other building in case that file isn't really a PST.

It dosn't recognize it as a PST so I'm thinking that possibly she does have a PST but rather than it being on that machine it could be on a machine in her alternate work place.

That would explain why all her mail is dropping into what looks to be a PST some where (I just have to figure out where). Hopefully I'll find it because they usually don't have one set machine so I could be going through 5 to 10 different machines until I can find it.

 

[RealBlackStuff]

If you use roaming profiles, it could well be enclosed in there somewhere.
Look at this:
http://www.computing.net/windows2003/wwwboard/forum/2281.html