Outlook 2003 stops responding,no scanpst.exe file

I have an HP Pavillion dv4 running Vista Home Premium with 64 bits. A few weeks ago, My Outlook 2003 started "not responding", then resolving continually. This also happened while on IE explorer 8.

I went through my Outlook calendar to add some recurring appts & deleted several birthdays of people on Plaxo which are in my deleted items folder.
Now, it is unusable:When I open it, it comes up in minimized screen and takes a full minute or 2 to populate. When I click on the upper right "maximize" box, it has "not responding". The Send-Recieve box pops up:"not responding". Noticed that the screen hasn't maximized, but clicking on "maximize box" has no effect behind the "not responding" send recieve window.
I then have 3 reminders. Previously, when I clicked on things during this process, it told me to run scanpst.exe. A search finally found a scanpst.exe_2002 which I unzipped to my desktop. Of course, with the _2002 at the end, it didn't recognize how to open so I renamed it by removing the _2002 at the end. Then it didn't work because it was missing a ?32.dll file...

During the time I was writing this, I just went back and finally was able to maximize the screen. I right clicked on "deleted items" and tried to delete them. I got the error message abouty a corrupt pst file and was instructed to use the the scanpst.exe which does not seem to exist in working order on my computer. I manually tried to find it & it is not in the office12 file, nor any others remotely related to it. I've stuck the MS Office disk and ran the repair/reinstalled option. Twice.

I'm having no problems searching the web, retrieving mail from the att site or writing this message currently. It seems that Outlook is the only "jammed up" program.

Has anyone experienced this with Outlook 2003? Does anyone know how to at least get a working copy of scanpst.exe? I need data from emails to continue with my "real" work.

 

look in C:\i386 for the scanpst, also, how big is your PST file? They start getting corrupt when nearing the 2gig mark (but have seen them corrupt before that point as well)

 

I never considered the size of the folder (3.18G). However, now my cord stopped working so it's back to Best Buy for a couple of weeks under warranty. I'll be taking this up when I get it back. Right now I'm babysitting my grand daugher and using my daughter's computer.

I'll try saving old folders & deleting them if possible. If it's too mucked up for that, I'll have to keep thinking of how to get certain Real Estate folders somewhere where I can save and re-access them & maybe reinstall?
Anyway, thanks for the lead.
BTW, I checked on that C/i386. It's not directly in my C drive and the one I located didn't have a scanpst.exe in it.

I may be back......

 

I'm back. The best buy guy took my battery out, plugged in my computer in and voila! Although the plug in area will need replacement, I have another week or 2 to backup and work on getting the 2 files I really need out of the oversized .pst file in outlook.
Serious Sam, I'm convinced that it is the file size. I noticed that there is another personal folders file that I finally got into and it worked. That's why I believe the problem is the size of the one those 2 folders are in.
I do have a scanpst.exe_0002_1032 file on my computer. The problem is that it won't work, I believe, because of the _0002_1032 at the end. Previously, I extracted it to my desktop & tried just deleting that part, but the resulting scanpst.exe file showed up as a "shattered" icon and didn't work because of missing .dll files (2 different times-2 different missing files).
I've tried to put them in my "favorite folders" area, but can not slide them to the working .pst folder. I can't figure out the scanpst.exe dilemma.
Do you have any suggestions?
Thank you!!

 

Backup your PST and reinstall Outlook.

 

Just wanted to update....after writing the previous post, I was busy netsurfing for a solution & found http://support.microsoft.com/kb/287497 . By following all the paths where it could be, I finally found the "real" scanpst.exe & it is running now. Yeah!
Hopefully, it will make it possible to get in there and do some housecleaning!

 

Thanks ZDawg32. I tried, but the program was too jammed up to do it. Hopefully, when scanpst.exe gets done, I'll be able to, then delete a lot.

 

Thank you all for your support. The scanpst.exe tool worked, I repaired it, got in and started deleting! Now things seem smooth