CSCANPST - A command line interface for the SCANPST

UPDATE 10/18/2018:

You no longer need this tool! Microsoft recently updated thier SCANPST utility to include all the functionality of CSCANPST!

Read about it here:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4055729/the-inbox-repair-tool-scanpst-exe-can-perform-multiple-passes-in

I tried it out and it works great!...

(Note that the "-rescan" didn't work, but the "-force" ones did.)

And a big thanks to Harry Q. for the heads-up on this change!

Overview

SCANPST is a utility published by Microsoft for repairing Outlook PST files. Unfortunately, the SCANPST utility does not have any command-line interface so you can only control it interactively from the GUI. Since SCANPST can take a long time to run and because it requires user input while running, this can be a big waste of time.

CSCANPST is tool that will let you use SCANPST from the command-line, making it possible to write batch files that will run SCANPST unattended.

Why would you want to run SCANPST from the command-line?

To save time. Even if you only have a single PST file, every time you run SCANPST you have to sit and watch it run so you can respond to the pop-up dialog boxes that it generates. By contrast, with CSCANPST, you can start the process and then go get a cup off coffee; it will run until it is done without needing any additional input from you.

If you have multiple PST files, you can even use a batch file to automatically run SCANPST on all of them with just one step. Again, you can start the process and then let it run until it is done while you do something else. This is much better than having to manually launch SCANPST on each PST file individually and watch it run.

Quick Start

1.  Click here to download CSCANPST.ZIP and unzip it to your hard drive.
2. Open the SCANALL.BAT file using Notepad or any text editor.
3. Change the SCANPST_PATH line to point to the location of your local copy of SCANPST.EXE.
4. Change the PST_FILE_MASK line to point to the directory where you keep your Outlook PST files.
5. Save and close the SCANALL.BAT file.
6. Run SCANALL.BAT either from a command prompt or by double clicking on it.

Usage

The CSCANPST.EXE executable takes two requered parameters. The first is the fully qualified path to a SCANPST.EXE executable. The second is the name of the PST file to scan.

You can optionally add an "N" at the end of the command line to suppres the creation of a backup PST file.

Once launched, CSCANPST will load SCANPST and send it the requested filename. It will respond to SCANPST input requests until either the file is repaired or there is an error.

On exit, CSCANPST will set the DOS errorcode to one of the following values...

CSCANPST will always answer "yes" when SCANPST asks to make a backup file. It will always use the default file name for the backup file (typically the PST name with a .BAK extention).

CSCANPST will append a line to the file called "CSCANPST.LOG" with details of the scan. If the log file does not exist, it will be created.  The appended line will show the file scanned and outcome. Possible outcomes are...

Samples

Entering this command will scan the specified PST file and return to the command prompt...

CSCANPST "C:\Program Files\Common Files\System\Mapi\1033\scanpst.exe" "C:\Documents and Settings\User Profile\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook\Archive.pst"

Here is a short batch file that will scan the two specified PST files and then report the results...

del CSCANPST.LOG
CSCANPST "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\SCANPST.EXE" "C:\Outlook\main.pst"
CSCANPST "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\SCANPST.EXE" "C:\Outlook\work.pst"
CSCANPST "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\SCANPST.EXE" "C:\Outlook\Spam.pst"
type CSCANPST.LOG

Here is an example of the output in CSCANPST.LOG after running it on my computer (I have a lot of PST files)...

Launched on C:\Users\josh\Documents\Mail\archive.pst...File repaired
Launched on C:\Users\josh\Documents\Mail\mail2005.pst...No errors found
Launched on C:\Users\josh\Documents\Mail\Mail2006.pst...No errors found
Launched on C:\Users\josh\Documents\Mail\Mail2007-B.pst...No errors found
Launched on C:\Users\josh\Documents\Mail\Mail2007.pst...No errors found
Launched on C:\Users\josh\Documents\Mail\Mail2008-A.pst...No errors found
Launched on C:\Users\josh\Documents\Mail\Spam-062808.pst...File repaired
Launched on C:\Users\josh\Documents\Mail\Spam-0805.pst...No errors found
Launched on C:\Users\josh\Documents\Mail\Spam.pst...No errors found
Launched on C:\Users\josh\Documents\Mail\spam20080908.pst...No errors found

FAQ

Q:  How can I find the location of my SCANPST.EXE?
A:  You can do a Windows file search for "SCANPST.EXE". Alternately, check out this helpful page.

Q: How can I find the location of my PST files?
A: You can do a Windows file search for "*.PST". Alternately, check out this helpful page.

Q: How does CSCANPST work?
A: CSCANPST is written in the surprisingly handy AutoHotKey language. It basically runs the SCANPST.EXE then watches for certain strings of words in windows that SCANPST generates. Based on what it sees, it pushes the right buttons to make SCANPST complete its job.

Q: SCANPST poped up a message that CSCANPST does not seem to be responding to.
A: CSCANPST responds to every error I could make happen, but there may be others that only happen in situations that I could not create. If you ever see one of these, please email me and let me know and I will add that case to CSCANPST. A screenshot showing the exact wording on the pop-up message would be very helpful.

Q: I am using a non-English version of Office and CSCANPST doesn't seem to work.
A: Yes, CSCANPST actually looks at the text inside the SCANPST windows to know what to do and when to type, so it will not recognize what is going on in windows that have non-English text. Probably the easiest solution is to find a English version of the SCANPST.EXE executable and run CSCANPST using that. Note that you do not need to install Office in English or even overwrite your existing SCANPST, just get an additional copy of SCANPST.EXE and OLMAPI32.DLL in English, put them in any directory on your hard drive, and specify the path to this new SCANPST.EXE when running CSCANPST.

Some translations also and insturctions here...

https://github.com/bigjosh/CSCANPST/tree/master/source/translations

Q: How much does CSCANPST cost?
A: CSCANPST is free. I do ask that you do not redistribute it- instead, please send people to this webpage so they can download it themselves. It would also be great if you could send an email to me at the support address below so that I can let you know about any updates to the program.

Q: Isn't there an easier/better way to do this?
A: Not that I could find. It does seem like Microsoft could have very easily added a few command-line parameters to SCANPST, but they didn't. Of course the day after I finished CSANPST I found this page. It is very similar to CSANPST, but I think (now that I already made it) that mine is a bit better documented.

If you really love CSCANPST, you can express your gratitude though a tax-deductible donation of any size to my favorite charity, The Aasha Foundation. They spend zero on administration and fundraising, so every dollar you give goes directly to helping the orphans.

Q: What is your relationship to Microsoft, makers of SCANPST?
A: None, except that I am a user of their program. 

Q: Sometimes it seems like SCANPST gets "stuck", but then wakes up if I click anywhere in the window.
A: This happens sometimes to me too. It might be a bug in AUTOHOTKEY or Windows. I've found that it usually only happens if I am going something else while the scan is running that messes up the window focus, so I usually start CSCANPST running and then leave the computer alone. Great excuse to go get a cup of tea.

Q: Does CSCANPST work with non-English versions of SCANPST.EXE?
A: Unfortunately CSCANPST looks specifically for English text in the window titles and prompts, so it will not work with non-English versions of Scanpst.exe.  

You can download an English version of ScanPst.exe and use CSCANPST with that instead. See FAQ question above.

Q: How can I automatically keep scanning a PST file until it is completely repaired?
A: Often it takes a few passes of SCANPST to completely fix a broken PST file.

It is easy to do this automatically in a batch file that checks the return code from CSCANPST. For example:

REM ***This batch file will automatically run SCANPST on specified PST file in the 
REM ***directory specified by PST_FILE_MASK. 
REM ***It will keep running until the file is clean or there is an error.


set SCANPST_PATH="C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office14\SCANPST.EXE"
set PST_FILE="D:\Users\josh\Documents\My Mail\Mail2010.pst"


REM *** CD into in the directory that contains the launched batch file...

echo CDing into %~dp0

%~d0

cd %~p0

del cscanpst.log

:loop

cscanpst.exe %SCANPST_PATH% %PST_FILE%

if errorlevel 3 goto DONE

if errorlevel 1 goto loop

ECHO *****File scanned clean!

:done

@echo Log:
@type cscanpst.log

@pause

This will keep scanning and scanning until either the file comes back with no errors, or CSCANPST hit a non-recoverable error (like file not found).

Just be sure to paste in the correct values for SCANPST_PATH and PST_FILE for your machine.

Q: How can I have it scan though all PST files in a tree of subfolders?
A: It is possible to do in with a little batch file magic. Check out this lin for ideas… 

https://ss64.com/nt/for_r.html

Updates

Support

For support, please email me at...

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