How To Handle Restore Deleted Ost File Challenge With Ease Using These Tips

OST files are the cache copy of Exchange accounts, which includes the data of entire mailbox such as Emails, Contacts, Texts, Calendars, etc. There are many situations in which deletion of OST file data takes place intentionally or by mistake. It makes user lose their critical data and may cause problems in continuing their business work flow. Sometimes it is easy to recover the deleted files but many a times it becomes very tedious task. In this article, we will go through the different scenarios to recover and restore deleted OST files.

Types of Deletion

There are two types of deletion of OST files:

Soft Deletion: When the data present in OST file is not deleted permanently from the system and is present in “Deleted Item” folder, it is called Soft Deletion. User can easily restore the data from the Deleted Item folder.

Hard Deletion:In hard deletion, the data present in OST files is permanently deleted and user cannot get back their data from Deleted Item folder. In such cases, it becomes very difficult to find or restore the deleted items. User needs to take many steps to restore the deleted OST files.

Different Methods to Recover Deleted OST File Data in Outlook 2010

Recovering Soft Deleted OST File Items

Whenever the user deletes any data from OST file such as; emails, contacts, texts, calendar, etc., it will automatically move to Deleted Items folder in mailbox. If the wants to recover the deleted item, they can recover it from Deleted Items folder and restore the deleted data to the desired folder.

Recovering Hard Deleted OST File Items

Hard deletion of OST data can happen due to the following reasons mentioned below:
If the user has permanently deleted the items using Shift + Delete

Sometimes, it is not an easy task to recover hard deleted items, as in this case the deleted data is no longer present in the Deleted Item folder.

Whenever the user permanently deletes the data present in OST file, it is moved to the dumpster Folder (owing to the file’s connection with Exchange) from where the deleted items can be recovered using the “Recover Deleted Item” option provided in MS Outlook.

About dumpster Folder :

This option is only available to the user, if the retention policy has been applied by server admin on the respective user account. User can recover and then restore their permanently deleted data using Recover Deleted Items option. The permanently deleted data that user recovers using “Recover Deleted Items” option will be directly transferred to the “Deleted Items” folder. After that, user can restore their data to the desired folder of their mailbox.

Note:

1.Retention period defines the time limit up to which Exchange Server keeps the permanently deleted items.

2.“Recover Deleted Item option is disabled” in following two conditions:

Firstly it happens when the user is working in offline mode

Secondly, when the user is not using an Exchange account

3.The admin can specify for how long deleted items will be available in the Recoverable Items folder for recovery. For example, the admin can impose the different policies that will decide for how long the deleted items will remain in Deleted Items folder it can be 30 days or less than 30 days.

How to prevent Automatic deletion data from Deleted Item folder?

Sometimes, Outlook automatically deletes data items from Delete Item folder as there is a setting in Outlook that can automatically empties the Deleted Item folder whenever user exit the Outlook. Due to this, users will face the problem while they are trying to restore deleted data from Deleted Item folder. In order to prevent the deletion of data, user can go for following steps:

1. Click on File tab

2. Click Options and

3. Then click on Advanced

4. Under Outlook start and exit

5. Uncheck the Empty Deleted Items folders when exiting Outlook check box.

6. Click OK to save the change

Recover and Restore Deleted OST file In Outlook

By restoring OST file data into PST file format, user can access its data contents in Outlook, i.e. independent of server. We know that OST files are the cache copies of Exchange account and if the original master Exchange file exists in the server or no changes has been made, users can easily transfer the data of OST file in Exchange client (Outlook) offline. On the other hand, if there is any modification of master Exchange account file takes place, the OST file will become orphaned. User cannot recover and restore an orphaned or damaged file using manual methods. The following steps user can use to restore the OST file in Outlook. In addition to this, user can apply this procedure to copy the entire OST data in PST file:

1. Access the Exchange offline profile

2. Click on the Tools menu

3. Click Services.

4. Now click Add

5. Add a Personal Folders (PST) service

6. Select the messages that you want to copy

7. On the File menu,

8. Click Copy

9. In the Copy to dialog box, select the personal folders (PST) that you created in step 5

10. Click OK

11. Repeat steps 6 through 10 for each OST folder that contains messages

Limitation of Recovering and restoring the data from OST files to Outlook:

Users cannot recover and restore the data from an orphan OST file

Third Party Tool:There are many commercial tools available in the market for recovering and restoring deleted OST files data. With the help of tool, user can recover the OST file data and can restore its data on Outlook. OST File Convert Tool is one of the reliable applications that can restore the OST data including Emails, Contacts, Tasks, etc. on Outlook. The tool can recover and restore OST file into many file format like PST, EML, MSG files. The tool is featured with easy to use interface that make the application more user friendly.