The location of scanpst.exe depends on your version of Outlook and whether or not you are using a 64-bit version of Windows.
When using 2002/XP or 2003, then the location also depends on your installed language of Office; <locale ID>. For instance, for the US English version this is 1033.
Outlook 2016
32-bit Windows; C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office16\
64-bit Windows; C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office16\
64-bit Outlook; C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office16\
Office 365 / Outlook 2016 Click to Run
any Windows; C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\root\office16\
Outlook 2013
32-bit Windows; C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office15\
64-bit Windows; C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office15\
64-bit Outlook; C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office15\
Office 365 / Outlook 2013 Click to Run
any Windows; C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\root\office15\
Outlook 2010
32-bit Windows; C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office14\
64-bit Windows; C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office14\
64-bit Outlook; C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office14\
Outlook 2007
32-bit Windows; C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\
64-bit Windows; C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office12\
Outlook 2003
32-bit Windows; C:\Program Files\Common Files\System\MSMAPI\<locale ID>\
64-bit Windows; C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\System\MSMAPI\<locale ID>\
Outlook 2002/XP
C:\Program Files\Common Files\System\MAPI\<locale ID>\
Outlook 2010 – Click-to-Run
When you use a Click-to-Run version of Outlook 2010, then you will not be able to open scanpst.exe via conventional means. Instead, follow the following procedure;
- Open the Click-to-Run version of Word, Excel or PowerPoint.
- Choose File-> Open
- Browse to the following location;
Q:\<14####.lan>\Office14
- Set the “All Word Documents” drop down list list to “All Files”.
- Right click on scanpst.exe and choose Open.
The folder <14####.lan> is a variable that depends on the version and language of your Click-to-Run installation. For instance; 140062.enu
Running the repair process
The repair process consists out of several steps. If you already know the location of the pst-file that you would like to scan, continue to; Starting the scanning process
Locating the pst-file
When you start the Inbox Repair Tool (scanpst.exe), the first thing it prompts you for is the location of the pst-file to scan. This path is revealed in the startup error or otherwise the default locations are as follows;
Windows XP
- Outlook 2007 and previous
C:\Documents and Settings\%username%\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook\
- Outlook 2010
C:\Documents and Settings\%username%\My Documents\Outlook Files\
Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8
- Outlook 2007 and previous
C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook\
- Outlook 2010, Outlook 2013 and Outlook 2016
C:\Users\%username%\Documents\Outlook Files\
Another way to determine the location of your pst-file (in case it differs from the default location) is via the Mail applet in Control Panel-> button Data Files…
If you have multiple profiles and the pst-file to scan is not part of your default mail profile, press the Show Profiles… button to select the correct profile first and the Properties…
Note:
The “Local Settings” and “AppData” folders are hidden folders. To access these folders, you can type the path in the Address Bar or File Name field of the Explorer dialog that opens when pressing Browse…
The Inbox Repair Tool (scanpst.exe) with a file selected to scan.
Starting the scanning process
After you have selected the pst-file to scan, you can press the Start button. At this point, nothing will happen to your pst-file yet; scanpst will do an analysis first. This analysis consists out of 8 phases of which some can take quite a bit longer to complete than others depending on the size and level of corruption of the file.
Analysis in progress…
After the analysis scan has completed, it will present you with a scanning report and options for the next step. You can press the Details… button for more information about the type of corruption.
Errors were found but you are almost ready to repair them.
Starting the repair process
Before you continue to the actual repair process, make sure you have a backup of the pst-file. If you do not have a backup already, make sure that you have the option set to make a backup before proceeding (selected by default).
After pressing the Repair button, the actual repair process will start and go through the 8 phases again. With a very large pst-file (larger than 4GB) and a slower hard disk, this process can sometimes take longer than half an hour.
Note:
When the repair process starts, it could appear that it will hang directly (Not Responding in Title Bar). In reality, it is not hanging but making a copy of your pst-file in the background or already has started the repair process. Depending on the size of your pst-file and the speed of your hard disk, this can take a while.
If it still hangs after 10 minutes (no hard disk activity either) and still hasn’t begun the actual repair process, you might want to abort the scanpst.exe process via Task manager (CTRL+SHIFT+ESC –> select tab Processes). Then, make a copy of your pst-file manually and restart the Repair process but this time with the Backup option disabled. If it still fails then, continue to the Repair process failed section.
Repair completed
If everything goes correctly, you’ll get the “Repair complete” dialog after some time. You can then press OK to close it and start Outlook again.
If everything works now; you’re done but you might want to read the Prevent pst-file corruptions section anyway ;).
