Outlook 2013 will not open, or create a .PST file on external USB drive

I store archived PST files on an external 2TB USB drive, and have these files opened in Outlook 2013 continually. These files were created by using the Outlook "create external file" command (New->More Items->Outlook data file)

After being on leave, I have come back, and cannot open these .PST  files anymore. My disks were not changed.

After speaking with my tech support, we moved the files from my personal USB drive to a LAN networked drive, and they opened. Copying back the LAN drive to the USB drive, the files fail to open. The USB drive is a 2TB Transcend, formatted with exFAT filesystem - and has been working well for the last 18 months using this .PST file approach.

The error message I get is "File <X> is not a valid .pst file".

So - my question is what has changed...? The client system is Win8 Pro (64bit), Exchange backend, Office 2013 frontend. The account is an Exchange account (not Hotmail, POP or IMAP).

Any ideas why are my PST files accessible from my LAN drive, but the same file not accessible from my USB drive? (I have checked the properties, and the files are r/w - and copying to a USB flash-drive allws them to be opened).

I want to carry my PST files around with me - and not have them live on my LAN drive - for security, speed and reducing LAN traffic. My primary mailbox is on the LAN, and a .OST file - but I transfer large files, and old files to the .PST files.Has

something with Win8.1 changed that mean USB disks need authenticated somehow? All my other files are ok on the USB disk - e.g. word, PPT, excel, PDF etc - just the .PST files are the issue.

Thanks, Hamish

July 29th, 2015 10:24pm

Opening PSTs on removable (or network) drives isn't supported, and I think you've now learned why.

You're welcome to try to fix them with SCANPST.

Create the PST on the regular drive and then copy it to the removable drive for posterity if you want.

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July 30th, 2015 7:35pm

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