Thursday, August 16, 2012

Convert OST to PST File to Regain Access Your Inaccessible Exchange Mailboxes

OST files are the ones for which you are able to access your mailboxes in the Exchange Server database, even when you are not connected to the Server. These files are extremely helpful in continue accessing email communications, when there is unpredictable or poor Internet connectivity. Apart from this, if any problem hits the Exchange Server database, these OST (.ost) files prove extremely useful in converting OST to PST and thereby regaining access to the inaccessible mailboxes.

These days, Microsoft Exchange Servers are used by many large as well as middle level enterprises to store all their business critical communications. With multi-layered spam filter, compatibility with all major browsers and smooth integration with Microsoft products, Exchange Server has gained a good user base.

While connected to the Exchange Server through MS Outlook email client, Outlook stores the emails, contacts, notes, journals and other calendar entries in a PST (Personal Storage Table) file. During the termination of connection between the Exchange Server and MS Outlook, Outlook creates an off-line copy of the mailboxes and that is stored on the local system as the OST file.

The OST or Off-line Storage Table files that are created on your local system are usually saved at the location - C:\Documents and Settings\\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook. The OST file records all the changes that are made to the mail items and they take effect, when Outlook gets synchronized with the Exchange Server.

Along with providing off-line accessibility to the Exchange mailbox, there are many other situations, when your locally saved OST files hold great value. Below listed are some of the instances, when the OST file can help restoring your lost or inaccessible mail components:

• Mail Server name has been changed or modified
• Unwanted modification to the Exchange Server profile
• Exchange Server has got crashed or is down for a long time
• Exchange mailbox has got deleted or migrated from the Server
• Exchange Server database has been inaccessible due to severe corruption

In the above situations, due to some sort of critical Exchange Server problem, the entire mailbox, containing all your precious mails becomes inaccessible. Under such conditions, if you have the OST file, you can opt for any OST to PST converter utility and regain access to your mail items by converting OST to PST. There are a number of such utilities available in the current software market. These software can even repair your corrupt OST file and then convert them to equivalent PST file. Moreover, these utilities come with interactive user interfaces and are easy-to-use.