How to Solve an ‘Unable to display the folder’ Error?

For those who use Microsoft Office Outlook, PST (Personal Storage Folder) corruption is an all-too-often incidence. Such can be the case when you receive one of the following error messages while opening MS Outlook or opening any of its folders:

“Error: Unable to display the folder”

A PST can get corrupted due to following reasons:

• PST exceeds its file size limit i.e. 2 GB
• You shut down the computer before exiting Outlook and hence closing PST
• You share the PST over a networked drive

Repairing PST

Microsoft Outlook comes with a pre-installed PST Repair utility called Inbox Repair Tool (Executable through Scanpst.exe file). The tool analyzes the entire PST structure and item headers. It then recovers whatever that is recoverable and deletes the unreadable.

To start with, take a backup of your corrupted PST and run Inbox Repair Tool (Scanpst.exe) on one of the PST files. To do so, follow these steps:

• Exit MS Outlook
• Click Start and then point to Search or Find (depending on your operating system)
• Type ‘scanpst.exe’ in Search for files or folders named box and hit ENTER
• Double click the file resulted in search results
• In Enter The Name Of The File You Want To Scan box, type the file name and path or locate the file using Browse
• Click Start
• After PST Recovery, launch MS Outlook and open the profile that is associated with the damaged PST
• The recovered folders and items can be viewed in Recovered Personal Folders or Lost and Found folder

If the PST is still not accessible, the file is probably damaged beyond repair. You might need to delete the damaged PST from the profile.

Data Recovery Info

 

In situations when Inbox Repair Tool fails to repair the PST, you can use a third-party tool. In contrast to Inbox Repair Tool, these PST Recovery Software run much effective scanning algorithms and do not delete the data. These are easily available tools and can help you get most out of your corrupted PST.

Applies To

• Microsoft Outlook 2002
• Microsoft Outlook 2000
• Microsoft Outlook 98
• Microsoft Outlook 97