Free tool to clean .pst file

[pilotman]

I am helping my dad clean his laptop and his Outlook .pst file is 12gb instead of the recommended 2gb. Do you guys know of any free software which I can use to repair this for him?

I tried the one thatcpmes with Windows but it didntwork (called scan something or the other)

Thanks in advance.

[Kingstepper]

Have you tried to compact it from within Outlook?

Depends on the version but in 2013 right click on account, data file properties, advanced, compact now.

[pilotman]

Thanks for the reply. Unfortunately cos the file is so big, Outlook wont let me do anything with it now.

[Scepticalist]

Can he still open it? The 2GB limit was removed in latest versions of Office. If you can, open it in a more recent version of Office, get him to do some housekeeping then compress it.

There are several tools that can repair corrupt pst files and split big ones into several files but nothing is guaranteed. I do this all the time for users at work and have only about 50% success rate.

Company policy and IT advice is to tell users not to use pst files. Which of course gets ignored.

[Kingstepper]

Try using scanpst.exe, which should be on your PC.

On mine it's found at "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office 15\root\office15\scanpst.exe".

Good idea to copy file before trying anything!