PST won't allow deleting

[Katherine]

A user has 1.9GB of email so we exported to a PST file
which is accessed on his home drive. He was trying to
delete some email's so he could move others to a folder
and the following error occurred: "The messaging
interface has returned an unknown error. If the problem
persists, restart Outlook". We're on Windows 2000, Office
2000 SP3.

We restarted Outlook, restarted the pc, deleted his
profile & recreated. We can open the PST file but can't
delete any items. Any ideas? Thanks, Katherine

 

[tony_pez]

At 1.9gb I would have pst'd to multiple files. At or around 2gb most
pst files become unstable. This sounds alot like a corrupt PST. Here
is the standard link for some steps you can take to repair a pst, if
you can't just export to multiple pst's to stay in a manageable size
range.
Good Luck


http://www.slipstick.com/problems/scanpst.htm

 

[Brian Tillman]

A user has 1.9GB of email so we exported to a PST file

Not the best choice. Create a new PST and copy or move items to it. Never
export a PST to a PST. You lose data that way.

which is accessed on his home drive. He was trying to
delete some email's so he could move others to a folder
and the following error occurred: "The messaging
interface has returned an unknown error. If the problem
persists, restart Outlook". We're on Windows 2000, Office
2000 SP3.

The symptom you see it one of the symptoms of a PST that has grown beyond
its limit. In general it can't be fixed without losing data. Don't delete
anything. Just move or copy items to other PSTs and, when finished, make
one of them the delivery location and dump the broken one.