Rectify Scanpst fatal error 80040900 completely

MS Outlook 2002 and earlier versions have ANSI formatted PST files which means they have the file size limit of only 2GB. Once the file size goes around 2GB, it starts showing problems related with PST corruption and can even lead to inaccessibility and data loss situations. In such situation, Outlook suggests you to use inbuilt Inbox repair tool but while using it, you can receive number of error messages including error 80040900.

Consider a situation where you are using Scanpst tool to repair the corrupted PST files but instead of that, you get an error message similar to this:

"Fatal error 80040900"

Cause:

The above error message generally occurs when the PST file you are going to repair has exceeded its file size limit i.e. above 2GB. Repairing of oversized PST files is beyond the capabilities of Scanpst tool. This is why you get the error 80040900.

Solution:

The main reason is the oversized PST files, so first of all you need to reduce the file size so that Scanpst tool can precede the repair process. You can use PST crop utility that works to make reduction in the size as per the user defined value. But one thing to be noted that while diminishing the PST file size, you can find some of your mails or other documents missing as this tool can delete them. So, it is important to create a backup of all the PST files before using PST crop utility and then try to use Inbox repair tool.

But even after this, the error remains then you must go for split 2GB PST tool that is competent enough to carry out the repair process in an efficient manner and also ensures you for complete recovery of all the data.