{"id":8675,"date":"2020-01-09T00:56:54","date_gmt":"2020-01-09T00:56:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cleverfiles.com\/howto\/?p=8675"},"modified":"2020-01-09T00:56:54","modified_gmt":"2020-01-09T00:56:54","slug":"use-pst-file-format-recover-pst-files","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cleverfiles.com\/howto\/what-is-pst.html","title":{"rendered":"Where to Use PST File Format and How to Recover PST Files"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"pst_microsoft_outlook_personal_folders\"><\/span><strong>PST (Microsoft Outlook Personal Folders)<\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\r\n\r\n<p>Created by Microsoft for use with Microsoft Exchange Client, Windows Messaging, and Microsoft Outlook, the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Personal_Storage_Table\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">PST<\/a> file format is used to store messages, calendar, and other data from Microsoft Exchange Server for offline use and long-term storage purposes. Over the last few years, Microsoft has been rethinking their support for open-source software and related development practices. The PST file extension is no exception to this, and Microsoft offers the necessary technical information required to read and write the contents of a PSD file on their website.<\/p>\r\n<img class=\"alignleft wp-image-8628 size-medium\" src=\"\/howto\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/what-is-pst.png\" alt=\"what is pst\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" \/>\r\n<p>They also have written an excellent overview of the format, explaining in great detail what is a PST file, including information about its structure, support, and key components. What you need to know is that a. pst file is a binary file format used by all email applications from Microsoft, and that it\u2019s based on the Exchange data store, a proprietary database environment. Inside every PST file is a hierarchy of folders, which corresponds to the messages on the mail server. Each folder then contains all associated messages, including attachments and metadata. Most PST files that you come across these days use Unicode encoding, but you may also stumble upon a PST file created using a very old version of Outlook. Such file would be ANSI-based, which means that it wouldn\u2019t support non-standard characters.<\/p>\r\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"how_to_open_pst_files\"><\/span><strong>How to Open PST Files?<\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\r\n<p>All email applications from Microsoft support the PST file format, including Microsoft Exchange Client, Windows Messaging, and Microsoft Outlook. Because most people and businesses already rely on these applications, they\u2019re also the best way how to open PST files. In the latest version of Outlook, all you need to do is open the File tab, choose Open &amp; Export, and then select the Open Outlook Data File option. The content of the imported PST file will appear at the bottom of your Folder pane, inside the Outlook data file folder.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>If you don\u2019t want to use Outlook or any other email application from Microsoft, you have several options how to view PST files. Gmail users will appreciate the free Outlook migration app from Google, which imports everything stored inside a PST file, including emails, contacts, and calendar data, to Gmail. A more versatile solution is PST File Viewer, a robust PST file inspector with support for HEX analysis, forensic analysis, and message export.<\/p>\r\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"how_to_recover_deleted_pst_files\"><\/span><strong>How to Recover Deleted PST Files?<\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\r\n<p>Even though PST files can be accessed remotely, Microsoft strongly advises against it because it may lead to file corruption. Many people don\u2019t listen to this advice, which often leads to lost PST files and a big headache. People also tend to overly rely on the way the PST file format handles deleted emails. Instead of immediately discarding them, the space which the mail occupies is marked as unallocated. This makes it possibly to recover recently deleted emails with relative ease. The problem is that one never knows which emails can still be recovered and which are forever lost.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>As such, it\u2019s a good idea to adhere to strict data loss prevention policies and practices as a way how you can protect yourself against user error. To protect yourself against hardware failure and data loss caused by Malware, we recommend a complete data recovery suit, such as <a href=\"\/file-recovery-software-mac.html\">Disk Drill<\/a>. This fantastic software from CleverFiles is no stranger to the PST file format, just like it\u2019s no stranger to more than 200 other file formats. It also comes with several highly useful tools\u2014all of which can make your life easier and your data better protected.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div class=\"relative bottom download__block\">\r\n            <div class=\"d-flex align-center download__block__inner\">\r\n                <div class=\"download__block__image-wrapper\">\r\n                <div class=\"download__block__image\">\r\n                    <img src=\"\/howto\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/sidebar-ban-96.png\" srcset=\"\/howto\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/sidebar-ban-2x-1.png 2x\" alt=\"Disk Drill\" width=\"96\" height=\"96\">        \r\n                <\/div>\r\n                <\/div>\r\n                <div class=\"download__block__announce\">\r\n                    <b>download-block-title<\/b><br>\r\n                    download-block-text\r\n                <\/div>\r\n                <div class=\"download__block__action\">\r\n                    <a href=\"\/\/download.html\" data-href-mac=\/\/disk-drill-mac.html data-href-win=\/\/disk-drill-win.html class=\"button button-green btn-md osreplace\">\r\n<svg width=\"16\" height=\"16\" viewBox=\"0 0 16 16\" fill=\"none\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\">\r\n<path d=\"M11.9546 7.293C11.8736 7.114 11.6956 7 11.4996 7H9.49957V0.5C9.49957 0.224 9.27557 0 8.99957 0H6.99957C6.72357 0 6.49957 0.224 6.49957 0.5V7H4.49957C4.30357 7 4.12557 7.115 4.04457 7.293C3.96257 7.472 3.99457 7.681 4.12357 7.829L7.62357 11.829C7.71857 11.938 7.85557 12 7.99957 12C8.14357 12 8.28057 11.937 8.37557 11.829L11.8756 7.829C12.0056 7.682 12.0356 7.472 11.9546 7.293Z\" fill=\"white\"\/>\r\n<path d=\"M13.5 11V14H2.5V11H0.5V15C0.5 15.553 0.948 16 1.5 16H14.5C15.053 16 15.5 15.553 15.5 15V11H13.5Z\" fill=\"white\"\/>\r\n<\/svg>\r\ndownload-block-button-text\r\n<\/a>\r\n                <\/div>\r\n            <\/div>\r\n        <\/div>\r\n\r\n<img class=\"size-full wp-image-7160 aligncenter\" src=\"\/howto\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/ddWinComicsPromo-2.jpg\" alt=\"recover deleted pst files\" width=\"640\" height=\"526\" \/>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PST (Microsoft Outlook Personal Folders) Created by Microsoft for use with Microsoft Exchange Client, Windows Messaging, and Microsoft Outlook, the PST file format is used to store messages, calendar, and other data from Microsoft Exchange Server for offline use and&#8230;","protected":false},"author":7840,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1759],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-8675","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-recovering-file-types-formats"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>What Is .PST File? 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He also has a more than 10-year experience in program development for macOS, Windows, iOS, Android. Arthur Cole is a writer with deep expertise in programming, who can easily jump into development processes on any modern platform, be it Windows, Mac, iOS, or Android, being at the same time a capable storyteller of all things IT. He often comes up with great ideas and innovative input, which makes him an indispensable part on his myriad of teams. He really likes writing. Unlike others, he also likes seeing others reading his content, of course. He created articles about Technology, Podcast and Gaming Industries, End-User and Corporate Software, Hardware, and so on. Over the years, he wrote hundreds of articles and tutorials on sites such as DZone, Simpleprogrammer, Ingeniumweb, Themanifest, Enterprisenetworkingplanet, aboutssl.org and many more. Arthur has been an essential part of various marketing campaigns for CleverFiles, maintained great relationships with our partners, and was pretty much always a frontman at various conferences, ensuring a connection with fellow IT entrepreneurs. He is a great animal lover and hiking enthusiast. Loves exploring new trails and beaches with his dog Angus and has recently been getting his hands and knees dirty in the garden.","sameAs":["https:\/\/x.com\/Arthur_Cole_"],"url":"https:\/\/www.cleverfiles.com\/howto\/author\/arthur-cole\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cleverfiles.com\/howto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8675","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cleverfiles.com\/howto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cleverfiles.com\/howto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cleverfiles.com\/howto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7840"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cleverfiles.com\/howto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8675"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.cleverfiles.com\/howto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8675\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29249,"href":"https:\/\/www.cleverfiles.com\/howto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8675\/revisions\/29249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cleverfiles.com\/howto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cleverfiles.com\/howto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cleverfiles.com\/howto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}