10 replies to this topic

[MTHall51]

Multiple Issues with Outlook 2007 Before AND After Reinstalling the program, and reinstalling Vista Would love for someone to point me in the right direction, if possible. 1] I had a total of over 120 times that Outlook 2007 simply stopped working during a wide variety of things I was attempting to do, including use Calendar, Tasks, email, etc. Not even one of those had a suggested solution after looking in the events file in Vista. The sudden stop would each time be signaled by the "White Screen of Death" as I call it since the whole screen is white, opaque, and then is followed by Outlook not working. What did I do? Everything I could think of, including running extensive spyware, antivirus, utility programs, checking everything imagineable. Then I reinstalled Windows Installer, then I did everything again. 2] Prior to a reformat of the Hard Drive I thought I had all my saved email, contacts, etc in PST files on my external HD. I wiped the C drive, I think, then reinstalled Windows Vista Ultimate, reinstalled all apps, ran all util programs, reinstalled MS Office, including the SP2 from MS site. 3] Now, all the data I thought was backuped to the external HD is not showing at all. I can live with that IF I can have some faith that I can start all over, with Outlook being super stable. Shocked to already see the White Screen of Death happen after just two days. NO clues at all. Any ideas?????

[8210GUY]

I don't have a solution for you, but have seen many crashes on vista, and it is very hit and miss at times trying to see what the issue is, best thing I can suggest to at least get you started on the road for a solution (I hope anyway), is to check out the event log in the admin tools part of the control panel, that may offer clues as to what the cause is. As to the external drive, what are you seeing ? Does the system actually show the drive as being there ? albeit without showing any content, or does the drive not even show up ? Best advice about the external drive has to be check it on another system, and back the files up to that to be safe, maybe the new install wants to format the drive before accepting it, seen that happen a few times, but it would not see the drive on the times I had that, I could only view it under computer management in the admin tools again, but if it can be seen on another system at least you may be able to save your missing files, sorry I have no better suggestions, but I hope this gets you started on the right track anyway.

[MTHall51]

I don't have a solution for you, but have seen many crashes on vista, and it is very hit and miss at times trying to see what the issue is, best thing I can suggest to at least get you started on the road for a solution (I hope anyway), is to check out the event log in the admin tools part of the control panel, that may offer clues as to what the cause is.
As to the external drive, what are you seeing ?
Does the system actually show the drive as being there ? albeit without showing any content, or does the drive not even show up ?
Best advice about the external drive has to be check it on another system, and back the files up to that to be safe, maybe the new install wants to format the drive before accepting it, seen that happen a few times, but it would not see the drive on the times I had that, I could only view it under computer management in the admin tools again, but if it can be seen on another system at least you may be able to save your missing files, sorry I have no better suggestions, but I hope this gets you started on the right track anyway.

Thank you for the advice and input. Checked event log but no clue. Did confirm though that not only Outlook but also IE crashed a huge number of times too. Maybe the Vista latest updates will help.
External HD is being recognized and all data from other apps is intact, but PST files show no content.

[8210GUY]

If the external drive is being seen, but the file is not then it sounds like maybe the backup didn't work maybe ? does it show on another system ? say one running xp ? You say the event log showed no clues, but yet confirmed multiple crashes ? if there are error entry's then even though they may not be clear, they may still offer some insight, if it has any entry's then if you could post back what they are so we can check ?

[MTHall51]

If the external drive is being seen, but the file is not then it sounds like maybe the backup didn't work maybe ?
does it show on another system ? say one running xp ?
You say the event log showed no clues, but yet confirmed multiple crashes ? if there are error entry's then even though they may not be clear, they may still offer some insight, if it has any entry's then if you could post back what they are so we can check ?

Unforunately now that I have reinstalled everyihing I don't see the event log anymore.
Last night I tried Outlook off and on. It seems ok. Actually I think what you said makes me think you had the right idea about the backup not working. I guess what I really need to do now is to go through the online tutorial again to be sure I did it right.
Oh yeah, one more interesting side note. I tried downloading a PST retrieval app which appeared to find data is the PST file backup. I still am showing no data. The only way for me to tell if the app I downloaded is actually able to retrieve everything is to buy the program for 50.00. At this point in my budget I will probably just go through the tutorial again from MS first.

[8210GUY]

TBH recovery software is always a gamble, there is no way to know for sure if it will work, don't get me wrong often they can retrieve stuff, BUT, if you pay out and it can't recover anything it's money down the drain, what is the name of this application ?
We can see how reputable it seems, I use GetDataBack with pretty good results, but you are not supposed to save the recovery files to the same drive as your recovering from, so you would need a slave drive to save any files it found to, not sure how other utility's work but I mention it incase it matters.
Going through the tutorial will not recover lost files, although you may be able to identify a discrepancy in what you had done that may be behind this but if you want to try a free application then give Recuva a try, it's from the team who do CCleaner, so it has a good backing, but I have never used it so have no idea what it can do or how to use it, but it may help, can't hurt to try, hope it helps.

[MTHall51]

The name of the program is recovery toolbox. I was planning on saving data recovered from the external hard drive I use as the backup drive, and then transfer it to the internal C drive.

[Missouri Mobile]

Since you did a format of your C drive it is highly unlikely that your PST file would be on that drive (which is where it would be saved by default)... If you have searched your external drive and have not found your PST file then it sounds like you probably saved it in it's default location (C drive) If you can confirm that you saved the file to the external we can help get it back into Outlook. But if you searched the drive and it's not there, it probably isn't... Also with your errors you mentioned that Vista updates might help resolve the issue... That is very true... You should always do updates after installing software right away to make sure your computer is secure and stable.... Service Pack 2 was just released for Office 2007 (which includes Outlook 2007)... I would highly recommend installing this update...

[MTHall51]

Since you did a format of your C drive it is highly unlikely that your PST file would be on that drive (which is where it would be saved by default)...

If you have searched your external drive and have not found your PST file then it sounds like you probably saved it in it's default location (C drive)

If you can confirm that you saved the file to the external we can help get it back into Outlook. But if you searched the drive and it's not there, it probably isn't...

Also with your errors you mentioned that Vista updates might help resolve the issue... That is very true... You should always do updates after installing software right away to make sure your computer is secure and stable....

Service Pack 2 was just released for Office 2007 (which includes Outlook 2007)... I would highly recommend installing this update...

Thanks very much. I will download that for sure.
I have found something with the label PST on the external drive but it looks like no data is in it.

[8210GUY]

I have not heard of that software so can't say anything about it, but have you tried the recovery software I linked above ? No idea if it will work, but can't hurt to try, as to an empty file I wonder if it hadn't finished transferring before you pulled the plug maybe, or if you didn't use the safe remove option if it could of corrupted it perhaps. I'm starting to fear that you will be wasting more time than it may be worth to find the file, as said now you've reinstalled it does make things harder, I have recovered files from formated drives numerous times, but you can never rely on that as nothing is guaranteed, so unless this file is very important then I would suggest cutting your losses and continue getting your system fully up and running, I hope it wasn't irreplaceable, but in closing I suggest getting used to backing this up to a slave or external drive on a regular basis, it will minimise the risk should you ever go through this again, good luck anyway.

[MTHall51]

I have not heard of that software so can't say anything about it, but have you tried the recovery software I linked above ?
No idea if it will work, but can't hurt to try, as to an empty file I wonder if it hadn't finished transferring before you pulled the plug maybe, or if you didn't use the safe remove option if it could of corrupted it perhaps.
I'm starting to fear that you will be wasting more time than it may be worth to find the file, as said now you've reinstalled it does make things harder, I have recovered files from formated drives numerous times, but you can never rely on that as nothing is guaranteed, so unless this file is very important then I would suggest cutting your losses and continue getting your system fully up and running, I hope it wasn't irreplaceable, but in closing I suggest getting used to backing this up to a slave or external drive on a regular basis, it will minimise the risk should you ever go through this again, good luck anyway.

Hi
Yes thanks. I tried it, and even though it could not recover it, I found out that all the data was overwritten, which I don't understand.