The Swamp!

So, We all know whats it like when your machine freezes, you force-restart your computer, or just kill Outlook when it's stuck, and the next time you start it up - your data folders are corrupt.

Microsoft wrote a nice article about the issue here: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook/HA010563001033.aspx
First thing to check would be your file system type. FAT32 Filesystems will not take files larger then 2GB. Outlook is supposed to warn you if your PST gets to this size or even close, but sometimes it doesnt, or you just ignore it. If your filesystem is FAT32, it is highly recommanded to convert to NTFS.

 

There are a bounch of ways one could use to repair their PST file:

 

Microsoft's Scanpst.exe Tool

If you have Office Installed, you already have this tool. All you need to do is navigate to the directory where it is and start it up.

If you are using Outlook XP or 2003, this should be located under

C:\Program Files\Common Files\System\MSMAPI\LocaleID

When LocaleID usually says 1033 for USA English and so on.

If you are using Outlook 2007, This should be located under

C:\Program Files\Common Files\System\MSMAPI\LocaleID

Once you loaded up Scanpst.exe you will need to browse and guide it to where your PST is.

Once you located your PST, hit "Start" And the tool will begin scannig the file:

If your PST is not a total-loss you should see a screen looking like this:

Hit "Repair" And you should be good.

 Once your PST is recovered, the repair tool will create a new .PST with the recovered Data, and you will need to tell Outlook to use this one instead of the corrupt one.

Start Outlook.  Select Go -> Folder List:

Once open, There should be a Recovered Personal Folders along with the regular  Outlook Personal Folders, or a Lost and Found option.If  Under the "Lost and Found" folder You see a file that the Inbox Repair Tool successfully fixed - Good. If not then the repair tool action was unsuccessfull. If there is a fixed .pst file in the Lost and Found box, you'll need to create a new .pst file to move the repaired file(s) to. After you've simply dragged the files over from the "Recovered" .pst file to the newly created .pst file , you can turf the Recovered Personal Folders contents.

If All Else Fails

If All else Fails, We recommand trying Stellar's PST Repair tool.

You candownload their PST Repair Tool directly Here