While Commercial products are sometimes necessary, I found a clever "work around" to avoid having to purchase a third-part product to repair a corrupted .pst file. I am running Win 8 on Outlook 2007. My Inbox was corrupted and the Microsoft scanpst.exe failed to effect the needed repair. The nature of the corruption to the inbox was such that downloads would not complete, and none of the files in the Inbox could be deleted (or moved), but THEY COULD BE COPIED (very important to the fix).
After some experimenting I learned:
1. Outlook can open several Outlook.pst files at once.
2. The "default" outlook.pst governs the responses of the system and indeed, adding a second file now adds a workable "Inbox". You will now have two "Personal Folders" in operation. (A real surprise to me)!
3. While the corrupted "Inbox" will not "erase" it WILL however, "copy". This is important as you will copy files from the old Inbox to the New, as you wish. You can also "drag and drop" any folders with sub-directories you have in the old .pst and just move them to the new. (How wonderful)!
4. As a separate item, I exported the contact list when it did not show up in the new arrangement. (I'm a bit fuzzy as just how I got this to work, however). Do try to export the contact list to a .pst file to effect this. (File > Import-Export > Export to a File... a ".pst" file and finally Point/select the "contact" location, selecting "add subfolders").
For step 2. you need to get into the Tools > Options > Mail Setup > data file Menu. "Add..." a second Personal Folder. It eventually must be set as the "default" file (to make the send and receives operational).
FYI, this "work around" was nearly perfect, but it left me with an extraneous "Inbox" containing files that cannot be deleted. Most importantly the sends and receives are normal, and none of the e-mail account setups needed to be changed or re-installed. My Outlook.pst file was almost 1 GB in size.
Be brave and give it a try, beside things are already screwed up and there is not much to loose. Be sure to back up the original "Outlook.pst" file before you begin, other than that explore, learn and attempt.
May your angst be "shredded" as you again emerge as fully operational!
Peace...
