A few days ago Outlook 2003 (with SP2 installed) had to be closed for
not responding. It then came up next time without the viewing pane (an
unusual occurrence). Today I was unable to access my Inbox folders. I
have run scanpst.exe, which carries on to the end when it asks to
"repair" when it hangs and does nothing. My pst file is less than 2Gb.
I was also unable to access or send mail.

Reading the posts I set up a new profile, identila to the old one bt
with a new name and was then able to send received mail, but now new
folders Inbox/Unread mail/Follow up/Sent items appear in the "Favorite
Folder" section. Incoming mail goes to the Unread folder, but once read
disappears.

How can I recover my old inbox which has important e-mails, and why did
it happen, and how can I prevent it happening again? I can't recall
doing anything untoward beforehand. No new software. Norton Antivirus
in place.

In this case, creating a new profile would not help. It would serve only to
changes your customizations, which it obviously has done. You can easily
change them back the way you want them.
Your problem was a damaged PST file which you have not repaired. Do you back
up your data?
Alternate a scandisk utility with the Inbox Repair Tool until it is
repaired. If the Inbox Repair Tool fails to repair the PST file, you can use
the following tool to find out what can be fixed:
http://officerecovery.com/outlook/index.htm
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
wrote in message
oups.com...
A few days ago Outlook 2003 (with SP2 installed) had to be closed for
not responding. It then came up next time without the viewing pane (an
unusual occurrence). Today I was unable to access my Inbox folders. I
have run scanpst.exe, which carries on to the end when it asks to
"repair" when it hangs and does nothing. My pst file is less than 2Gb.
I was also unable to access or send mail.

Reading the posts I set up a new profile, identila to the old one bt
with a new name and was then able to send received mail, but now new
folders Inbox/Unread mail/Follow up/Sent items appear in the "Favorite
Folder" section. Incoming mail goes to the Unread folder, but once read
disappears.

How can I recover my old inbox which has important e-mails, and why did
it happen, and how can I prevent it happening again? I can't recall
doing anything untoward beforehand. No new software. Norton Antivirus
in place.