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A friends old computer crashed and has now setup a new computer with Outlook 2016. He was using Outlook 2007 with POP3. Lukcily, everything was backed up, so I reloaded the .pst file into Outlook 2016. Unfortunatly, it appears some of the folders are missing.

I've checked the pst with a number of PST viewers, fixing tools and different backups and none of them are showing any of the missing folders.

He says the folders were in a different folder tree which lead me to believe it was setup under another account. However, we went through all the accounts he had and none of them have the missing folders.

I'm at a loss of where these folders have gone. does outlook store folders in a different place sometimes? What else could be the problem here? Really at a loss and these emails are vital to my friends business.

Thanks for any help or suggestions!

UPDATE 1

I've got my hands on Outlook 2007, the software version that was installed before the crash. I've loaded the pst in and the folders are still missing. Therefore, I followed Microsoft's steps to try to recover anything and nothing has new has appeared (not even a lost & found folder). A snippet of the log from scanpst.exer is below. Can anyone make heads or tails of what it means?

Microsoft (R) Inbox Repair Tool Copyright (C) Microsoft Corp 1995-1996. All rights reserved.

**Beginning NDB recovery

**Attempting to open database

**Attempting to validate header

**Attempting to validate AMap

**Attempting to validate BBT

**Attempting to validate NBT

**Attempting to validate BBT refcounts

**Attempting to validate header NID high-water marks

**Beginning PST/OST recovery

**Attempting to recover all top-level objects

  !!Search folder invalid high-water-mark (nidi=4015, nidiHigh=46BB)

**Validiating column set of the GUST

**Attempting to walk all folders

  !!TC (nid=12E) missing required column (00390040)
  !!TC (nid=12E) missing required column (0070001F)
  !!TC (nid=12E) missing required column (00710102)
  !!TC (nid=12E) missing required column (65C60003)

  !!Hierarchy Table for 122, row doesn't match sub-object:
    irow = 0, RowID = 2223

  !!TC (nid=802E) missing required column (00390040)
  !!TC (nid=802E) missing required column (0070001F)
  !!TC (nid=802E) missing required column (00710102)
  !!TC (nid=802E) missing required column (65C60003)

      !!Message (nid=561944):
        Invalid PR_MESSAGE_SIZE (computed=29350, actual=30874)

  !!Contents Table for 8022, row doesn't match sub-object:
    irow = 0, RowID = 561944

  !!TC (nid=804E) missing required column (00390040)
  !!TC (nid=804E) missing required column (0070001F)
  !!TC (nid=804E) missing required column (00710102)

      !!Message (nid=5D1024):
        Invalid PR_MESSAGE_SIZE (computed=29934, actual=30750)

  !!Contents Table for 8042, row doesn't match sub-object:
    irow = 1902, RowID = 5D1024

      !!Message (nid=5D13E4):
        Invalid PR_MESSAGE_SIZE (computed=8466, actual=9862)

  !!Contents Table for 8042, row doesn't match sub-object:
    irow = 1901, RowID = 5D13E4

      !!Message (nid=5D12C4):
        Invalid PR_MESSAGE_SIZE (computed=94881, actual=98606)
        Missing PR_PST_ATTACHMENTS_SIZE

  !!Contents Table for 8042, row doesn't match sub-object:
    irow = 1900, RowID = 5D12C4

      !!Message (nid=5D1344):
        Invalid PR_MESSAGE_SIZE (computed=104578, actual=108303)
        Missing PR_PST_ATTACHMENTS_SIZE

  !!Contents Table for 8042, row doesn't match sub-object:
    irow = 1899, RowID = 5D1344

      !!Message (nid=5D1304):
        Invalid PR_MESSAGE_SIZE (computed=74733, actual=78804)
        Missing PR_PST_ATTACHMENTS_SIZE

......(it continues for quite some time)......

!!TC (nid=2230) missing required column (0E2A000B) !!TC (nid=2230) missing required column (30080040)

  !!TC (nid=80030) missing required column (0E2A000B)
  !!TC (nid=80030) missing required column (30080040)

**Attempting to locate any orphaned folders/messages

**Validiating GUST rowset

!!GUST PC properties were updated to be consistant with TC contents

!!GUST TC contents were updated to be consistant with message PCs

**Performing final HMP validation

**Attempting to check top-level objects for consistency

  ??Deleting SDO

**Updating folder hierarchy

**Attempting to fix original file

**Attempting to copy back BBT

**Attempting to copy back NBT

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  • I would place money on the fact your friend is just remembering wrong. Unless you skipped a file, if the folder isn't there, then it isn't there. Its not clear what your question is, if you have verified the emails/folders are not contained with the .PST, then you are looking at the wrong .PST file.
    – Ramhound
    Commented Dec 9, 2015 at 15:21
  • @Ramhound that's my worry. I've scanned his backup for .pst files and checked all of them, none of them have the folders or emails he mentions even though I have follow up emails to the missing emails.
    – David
    Commented Dec 9, 2015 at 15:25
  • Is it possible these .PST files were restored from a backup before the crash? Are these the only emails that are missing? Are the emails still on the server?
    – Ramhound
    Commented Dec 9, 2015 at 15:27
  • @Ramhound No, there are folders missing as well that have been present for months, but don't appear any ANY backup PST from any date in the past 6 months. It leads me to believe these folders/emails weren't stored/setup in the traditional way and thus why they aren't in the PST.
    – David
    Commented Dec 9, 2015 at 15:43
  • You are sure IMAP wasn't being used and .PST was simple used to archive the emails?
    – Ramhound
    Commented Dec 9, 2015 at 15:46

1 Answer 1

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This should be a comment, but my bad reputation prevents me from adding one.

Is there a way for you to make sure all PST files were in the backup? Some backup methods do not cover open files and thus will not backup a PST file currently in use by a running Outlook instance.

To my knowledge, Outlook stores all its e-mails in PST folders, i.e. there is no other location other than PST folders to look for Outlook e-mails. Your comment suggests you are aware that there may be multiple PST files for a single Outlook account (e.g. PST files are created automatically when having multiple e-mail accounts as well as by Outlook's archiving feature).

Since I don't know your backup software, my last hint is to ensure you're not missing PST files in hidden or system folders inside your backup.

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  • It's CrashPlan that is used. I've also dragged the files off the old harddrive, just in case it wasn't backuped using CrashPlan. there are no additional pst files.
    – David
    Commented Dec 10, 2015 at 10:10
  • Weird. I have not much hope to be honest. Have you checked for OST files? (cf. support.office.com/en-au/article/…). If you are really desperate, you could try to restore the user account as described here: jephens.com/2008/10/14/…. This would require reading the registry from the backup (described in superuser.com/questions/111732/…).
    – Robin
    Commented Dec 10, 2015 at 14:50

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