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Microsoft Outlook is a mail system for splendid communication around the business organization or corporate businesses. The mailbox information is located in user’s computer in the form of OST file format. Offline Storage Table termed as OST & it is a data structure that holds the information of mailbox over an Exchange server. OST files give access to mailing objects such as calendar, meeting schedules, appointments, contact, tasks, journals, etc. without the connectivity of the network. OST files reflects the files in your Exchange mailbox. That is why MS Outlook files are popular in the work places. They are generally used in offline mode and any change made in offline mode is visible when the network connection is made with the Microsoft Exchange server. If your mailbox gets deleted accidentally then you can recover deleted emails from OST by using recovery tool.

Facts responsible leading to deletion of emails from OST files are as follows:

• Accidental Deletion of OST files: At some instances user’s account may get deleted from exchange server accidentally or by an admin for security reasons. So the information stored in OST file in MS Outlook client are inaccessible.
• Unintentional formatting: You may unintentionally format your hard drive where OST files are located. Formatting of hard drive leads to complete deletion of OST files & also other types of files from the drive resulting in loss of data.
• During antivirus scanning: Virus infects OST file resulting in deletion of emails & in extreme case it may even corrupt OST file. While performing antivirus program, the severely infected OST files get deleted along with the virus as antivirus cannot repair affected OST file.
• Untrusted recovery software: Usage of untrusted recovery program to rescue OST file may lead to corruption of OST file. As nowadays many software products to recover files are present in internet. So it is better to choose the right one for recovery.

Precautions to be taken to avoid further data loss:

• Keep back up of an important OST file to avoid loss of OST file.
• Update your system with latest Antivirus program to keep OST file corruption free due to Virus infection.

As you have lost access to your OST files, all you need is to use a third party utility to access your OST files. OST recovery tool is an excellent program through which you can restore deleted files from OST. Outlook items like contact, calendar, appointments, tasks, notes, attachments, etc. can be recovered easily. It is also a friendly- user interface & performs OST file recovery on Outlook 2010, 2007, 2003, 2000. This software can also be used to fix damaged OST file after bad sectors in hard drive, file system corruption, oversized OST file, etc. This application do not modify the original content, instead creates new file & reads exactly what is in the original file without any damage to the original OST file.

Simple steps to recover deleted emails from OST file:

Step 1: From the main page, select any of the three option "Open PST File", "Find PST File", and "Select Outlook Profile" based on your need.

Figure A - Main Screen

Step 2: Select damaged PST file & then choose the scanning method providing the destined location for saving fixed OST file. Now press "Repair" button to start the process.

Figure B - Select Scanning Method & Destination Folder

Step 3: After the completion of scanning process, you can preview recostored emails.

Figure C - Preview Outlook Data