Your best bet is to move the bad pst file to a different location and then
start Outlook, allowing it to create a new one. Then you can open the bad
file from within Outlook and copy some of the messages to the current
mailbox. Then again, if you upgrade to Outlook 2003 or 2007 you could copy
all the messages to the new PST, assuming the damaged old PST allows that.

-Peter

"Bob" wrote in message
...
FYI

I used c:\Program Files\Common Files\System\MSMAPI\1033\SCANPST.EXE
to verify the file's health.

1 - I couldn't simply open it as the USERNAME\Local Settings folder is
hidden.
I simply copied it to c:\temp and tested it there.

2 - For the record, the IMAP pst file is located at:
C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\Local Settings\Application Data
\Microsoft\Outlook

It did not help. I also tried:
Tools - Options - Mail Setup - Data Files
(select IMAP server) - Settings - Compact Now

None of the above helped.