benbakelaar
IS-IT--Management
OK... user transfers most of IMAP folder to "Local Folders" (mailbox.pst)... File must be 100s of MBs, but definitely not approaching the 2GB limit (which causes errors).
This morning, user logs on, Windows triggers a check disk, user opens Outlook, Outlook pops up "Open existing file" or "Create new file". I am the tech guy, I come over to look, the mailbox.pst file in her profile (Windows 2000) is 0KB. Created 6/11/2003, last modified 1/12/2004 5:56pm. Yesterday file was 100s of MBs, today, 0KB with no content, not even a file structure (no folder information i.e. folders show up empty).
Event viewer shows the check disk found errors, corrected things, changed the FAT table, re-allocated space. I have the full output from it in Event Viewer.
So HOW IN THE WORLD did this happen?
1) User clicked something? Nope, how could Outlook have any option that would empty not only contents but also basic folder information itself.
2) Inbox crashed/corrupted? Ran recovery from KB296088, ran several 3rd party tools. There is just no file information, its not corrupted.
3) CHKDSK somehow re-allocated the mailbox.pst file so that only the pointer remains, and either the physical location of the data got erased, or the pointer lost the markers for the physical location of the data.... IS THIS POSSIBLE?
4) CHKDSK was running, user opened Outlook during CHKDSK running, and proceeded to empty the mailbox.pst file which Outlook was loading. IS THIS POSSIBLE?
Thanks for any and all help guys, I've seen lots of crazy errors but nothing like this.
Before you ask, BACKUP? No, unfortunately AutoArchive was not set. Very unfortunately. However, if AutoArchive was set to run every day, for instance, then the last backup of the file -- I can only assume -- would be 0KB as well. Right?
This morning, user logs on, Windows triggers a check disk, user opens Outlook, Outlook pops up "Open existing file" or "Create new file". I am the tech guy, I come over to look, the mailbox.pst file in her profile (Windows 2000) is 0KB. Created 6/11/2003, last modified 1/12/2004 5:56pm. Yesterday file was 100s of MBs, today, 0KB with no content, not even a file structure (no folder information i.e. folders show up empty).
Event viewer shows the check disk found errors, corrected things, changed the FAT table, re-allocated space. I have the full output from it in Event Viewer.
So HOW IN THE WORLD did this happen?
1) User clicked something? Nope, how could Outlook have any option that would empty not only contents but also basic folder information itself.
2) Inbox crashed/corrupted? Ran recovery from KB296088, ran several 3rd party tools. There is just no file information, its not corrupted.
3) CHKDSK somehow re-allocated the mailbox.pst file so that only the pointer remains, and either the physical location of the data got erased, or the pointer lost the markers for the physical location of the data.... IS THIS POSSIBLE?
4) CHKDSK was running, user opened Outlook during CHKDSK running, and proceeded to empty the mailbox.pst file which Outlook was loading. IS THIS POSSIBLE?
Thanks for any and all help guys, I've seen lots of crazy errors but nothing like this.
Before you ask, BACKUP? No, unfortunately AutoArchive was not set. Very unfortunately. However, if AutoArchive was set to run every day, for instance, then the last backup of the file -- I can only assume -- would be 0KB as well. Right?