How to Avoid Creating Orphaned OST Files

The advantage of working with Outlook offline folder files (OST files) is that one can work on the same data as that stored in the mailbox on the Exchange server without any interruptions. However, users often forget that OST files are merely replicas of the server-based folders - in fact, they are often referred to as the slave replicas of the folders located on the Microsoft Exchange server with the mailbox on the server being the master. It is very important to bear in mind that if the master or the main mailbox stored on the server is deleted, then the OST files that are linked to that particular mailbox will be orphaned. This means data in the OST files becomes inaccessible and there is no easy way of carrying out an ost recovery.

There are situations in which the main mailbox located on a Microsoft Exchange server gets deleted. Sometimes, it is by accident and sometimes, the administrator deletes it suspecting some corruption in the mailbox. In such situations, a user may unknowingly create a new profile and try to access the data in the old OST files. To their surprise, they may find that all the data in the old OST file is lost. The reason being that for security purposes, OST files are associated with a certain profile and if the profile is deleted or changed, then the data in the OST files is lost. An ost recovery is not able to recover the data in the files if the profile has been changed.

A user should therefore note that if a mailbox is deleted from the Exchange server, they should not try modifying the profile. The first step they should take is to start Outlook offline so that they can still access the data from the old OST files. They can now move the data from the offline folder files (OST files) to personal folder files (PST files). PST files have the advantage that they can be opened directly by Outlook and do not depend on any connection to the Exchange server. Follow the steps given below to ensure that you carry out a successful ost recovery.

So long as you have not made any change in your current Outlook profile or have not tried to logon to a new mailbox on Exchange server, you should be able to follow the steps given below to copy the data from the old OST file to a PST.

1. Start Outlook in an offline mode.
2. From the main Tools menu, select Services and choose Add. This will allow you to add a personal folders (PST) service.
3. Now choose the messages from the OST file that you would like to copy. From the main File menu, select Copy and choose the PST file that you had previously created, to copy the messages into.

There is another quick way of recovering messages from orphaned OST files and that is to use the highly effective and popular ost recovery tool, Advanced Exchange Recovery from DataNumen. This will allow you to scan and restore data from fairly large, orphaned OST files.