Question

Cannot start Outlook 2003 after reboot

Asked by: rcicotte

I have recently installed Microsoft Office 2003 on my XP Pro client.  I do not use Microsofte Exchange Server.  Since upgrading from XP Office Pro I find that whenever I restart the client I lose access to my Outlook 2003 files.  After restarting and attempting to open Outlook I get the following error messge:

"Cannot start Microsof Office Outlook.  Unable to open the Outlook window.  The set of folders coult not be opened.  The server is not available.  contact your administrator if this condition persists."

This is no help of course because I am the administrator.  I find that I cannot even use a backup of the .pst file because the existing Outlook.pst file is locked and and cannot be renamed, deleted or accessed in any way.  If I attempt to use the scanpst utility it says that the file is in use and cannot be opened.  In order to correct the problem I need to:
1.  Restart in safe mode
2.  Run scanpst.exe on the Outlook.pst file and fix errors (errors are always found)
3.  Rename the file.  If I do not rename it the file will still be locked when I restart and Outlook will still not open.
4.  Restart XP in normal mode
5.  Rename the file to Outlook.pst
6.  Open Outlook and all is well.

The problem is consistent but I cannot find what process is locking the .pst file.  Can anyone help.  I cannot find any reference to this problem at MSDN.

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Asked On
2004-03-14 at 08:18:37ID20918350
Tags

outlook

,

cannot

,

start

,

2003

,

outlook.

Topics

Outlook Groupware Software

,

Microsoft Applications

Participating Experts
7
Points
250
Comments
15

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by: sunray_2003Posted on 2004-03-14 at 08:21:12ID: 10592318

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by: sunray_2003Posted on 2004-03-14 at 08:24:11ID: 10592345

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by: bruintjePosted on 2004-03-14 at 09:13:53ID: 10592535

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by: slink9Posted on 2004-03-14 at 13:43:43ID: 10593591

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by: rcicottePosted on 2004-03-14 at 16:01:20ID: 10594132

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by: bruintjePosted on 2004-03-14 at 23:39:20ID: 10595592

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by: slink9Posted on 2004-03-15 at 04:43:32ID: 10596735

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by: rcicottePosted on 2004-03-15 at 04:49:02ID: 10596766

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by: rcicottePosted on 2004-03-15 at 09:44:20ID: 10599161

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by: rcicottePosted on 2004-03-15 at 10:01:09ID: 10599307

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by: T-UxidoPosted on 2004-12-20 at 11:43:21ID: 12869714

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by: rcicottePosted on 2004-12-22 at 02:46:39ID: 12882814

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