Thanks for responding, however I could not accomplish it. One of the messages was;

"The Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 Inbox Repair Tool does not recognize the file C:\program files\Microsoft Office12\scanpsst.exe. No information can be recovered."

Thanks, any more suggestions?
Ben

 With Outlook closed, run scanpst.exe (use file/folder search function). When
 it's located, double-click it and follow the instructions. Browse to your PST
 and run scanpst against it. If it finds errors and repairs them, run it again
 (until it does a complete run through with no errors). Then try to open
 Outlook again.

 Let me know what happens. Good luck!

 --
 Kathleen Orland - MVP Outlook
 Outlook Tips: http://www.outlook-tips.net/ 
 http://www.howto-outlook.com/

 "BenT" wrote:

 > Hi All
 > I am unable to open Outlook, this started a couple of weeks ago. I am using Window Live Mail in the meantime.
 > This problem was preceded with this message;
 >
 > "A data file did not close properly the last time it was used and is being checked for problems.
 > Performance might be affected while the check is in progress."
 >
 > Every time I try to open Outlook I get this message and Outlook immediately shuts down.
 > Can anyone help me? Thanks for any suggestions.
 >  Ben
 >
 >
 >
 >
 >

Greetings,

I was having precisely the same problem. I tried just about everything including creating a new PST file and then exporting the old one to the new one and nothing worked.

Then I disabled Google Desktop (GD)and the problems dissapeared. Just to make sure, I re-enabled GD and the problems returned. Repeated above 5 tmes and got same result - ergo GD indexing is access the PST file.

If you don't have GD, it could be anti virus software scanning the PST file.

Hope this helps