Email Recovery on POP3 with Hex Editor

Sorry if this is wrong forum, don't know where to place it.

I accidentally deleted an email folder in Outlook 2003 on POP3. I researched and found Stellar Phoenix PST Recovery and it WORKED!!!! However, in order to download the emails back into Outlook the program is $130. I don't mind paying but thought I could try the Hex Editor first.


Having said that, I don't know what the bleep a Hex Editor is, HOWEVER I can follow really good directions.

Thru the posts here that have step-by-step directions, I have successfully formatted my computer twice to remove bloatware.

I followed directions to do DumpsterAlwaysOn but learned that won't help on files that were deleted BEFORE creating that command.




I found these directions but not sure what it means by the "first eight bits of file". I saw a screen shot of the graph but still am not sure which "first eight bits" . . . is it the first set of numbers going ACROSS the graph or DOWN the graph. Any directions are appreciated.





1-Open the affected PST with a hex editor

2-Change the first eight (or any other number) bits of file to ‘ff’ or ’00′

3-Open Outlook to view this PST. Outlook is supposed to no longer recognize this file and declare it as corrupt

4-Access Scanpst.exe file to start Inbox Repair Tool and repair the corrupt PST

5-Repairing the corrupted PST recreates all the pointers and hence, you deleted PST items get restored to their original location



When you run Scanpst.exe, it performs a number of tests. If it finds errors, it asks whether you want to make a backup copy of the original file (always say Yes), then tries to correct the errors.

If you run Scanpst.exe against a .pst file that Outlook 2003 created for a local copy of Windows SharePoint Services events and contacts lists, you will get an error message that you can ignore. See You Receive an Error Message When You Use the Inbox Repair Tool to Scan a .pst File

For seriously corrupted PST files, try running Scandisk.exe (look under Programs | Accessories | System Tools) first, then Scanpst.exe, repeating 3-4 times until neither program returns an error. We've know this technique to restore data that the user though was lost forever.

And if that doesn't do it, you can try our tips to repair a 2gb Personal Folders file or Offline Folders in Microsoft Outlook.

If the file is on an NTFS volume, you can't use Scandisk.exe so easily. One approach, for Windows 2000, is to open the drive in My Computer and use the Tools menu commands to scan the disk. You may need to restart Windows for the scan to run.



Notes You can use Scanpst.exe not only on PST files, but also on offline folder .ost files used for offline access to Exchange Server folders. If an OST file is corrupted beyond the ability of Scanpst.exe to repair it, you will need to change the settings for the Exchange Server service (Tools | Services) to use a new OST file, then synchronize it with the server.
There may be cases where you need to run both ScanPST and PST2GB. See OL2000 Error Message When You Start Outlook 2000 or Try to Open a Personal Folders File.

Another approach is to use a hex editor remove a single byte from the middle of the PST file, then run Scanpst. A hex editor is a tool for editing raw files; every Windows shareware site has several to choose from. Eugene McCarthy of FAO Headquarters in Rome recommends the free iHex editor, which loads only 64kb of the file at a time, making it ideal for tinkering with extremely large PST files. For simple Scanpst repairs, Eugene recommends changing the first byte of the PST file from hex 21 to 00.

 

Glad you got it fixed. I would highly recommend that anyone that has access to SMTP use that instead of POP3. That will make most of these issues irrelevant. POP3 is very old, and much better methods of mail transfer exist now.

 

thanks for the SMTP suggestion . . . however I didn't get it fixed, long post I know . . .

you're right I did recover everything IF I want to pay the $130 but I wanted to try and fix with the hex editor, but need an explanation as to what the "first 8 bits of file" are . . . see original post

Thanks!!!

 

Oh, sorry. It was kinda hard to read the post. The first 8 bits of the file are just that... if you open it with a hex editor you should just take the very first byte that you can see and change it to ff or 00 from whatever it is.