My Microsoft Outlook FILE (not Outlook Express) was set up to send/receive messages through one of my ISP’s. I made some minor changes to my Tasks folder on 3/10/08. I then went to Disc Cleanup and compressed my files. PRIOR to this day I had never checked “Compress Old Files“ for cleanup. I then shut down the computer. When I restarted, I was unable to ACCESS Microsoft Outlook at all.

If I right clicked on Outlook Icon on the toolbar a box would open asking me to create a new profile with a new profile name. When I hit “cancel” I received this Error Message “No profiles have been created. To create new profile, use the Mail Icon in the Control Panel. When I pressed OK I received ANOTHER Error Message saying “Cannot start Microsoft Outlook. The server is not available. Contact your ADMINISTRATOR if this condition persists.” When I went to the Control Panel and pressed the Mail Icon, there was a box that said “These are the profiles that are set up on this computer.” Inside the box is “empty” showing no profiles at all.

I then did a search and located my Outlook file. I attempted to open it to no avail. It had 44,256KB - Office Data File - and it shows it was last modified 3/10/08 at 7:47 pm.

When I attempt to open it I receive this Error Message: Cannot start Microsoft Outlook the command line argument is not valid. Verify the switch you are using.

On 3/12/08 I ran Outlook in Safe Mode. I was able to create another file, Outlook 1, which I can use in the future. Of course, I still have the problem of opening my original Outlook file with years of data in it.

I hope someone on this site can help me. I need to open my original Outook file. This is my first posting.
The file you were able to find on your system...what is the extension of it? Does it end in .pst? Or something else?
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This is my first posting.

The file you were able to find on your system...what is the extension of it? Does it end in .pst? Or something else?