How To Fix The Extend.Dat File In Outlook 2003

Outlook, the personal information manager software, comes packed with the Microsoft Office suite. The application allows the user to exchange emails, manage contacts and create calendar/task notepads and journals. Errors in Outlook can be often annoying. Follow the steps below to troubleshoot cannot start Outlook errors.

Diagnostics Programs

• Launch the Outlook application. You may launch the application either by double clicking the desktop shortcut label or from the Start menu. 
• Wait for the application to load. Click on the label that reads Help located at the top of your screen.
• From the Help menu, select the label that reads Detect and Repair.
• To initiate the diagnostics process, hit the button at the bottom of the screen.

Steps to Rename the File

• Launch the Start menu by clicking the Start button on the bottom left corner of the home screen. From the Start menu pop up, select the label that reads Outlook. If you do not find the same in the instant pop up, click on the Programs label and search for Outlook. Check whether the diagnostic process has fixed the bug or not. 
• If the diagnostic process failed to fix the bugs with the old one, you will have to force Outlook to create a new file. 
• Select the Search label from the Start menu. Place the mouse pointer in the search space and type extend.dat. This will make Windows search for the specified file on your hard drive.
• Wait for Windows to finish the search. This may take a minute or two and is dependent on the size of the data being scanned. You will find the search results displayed in the right pane on the search window. 
• Highlight the file once Windows locates it.
• Right-click on the extend.dat file and from the dropdown, select the option, Rename.
• Place the mouse pointer in the typing space and type extend.old and hit the Enter button. This will rename the file. 
• Now, restart Outlook 2003. Outlook will now automatically search for the file named extend.dat. Since it has been renamed as extend.old, Outlook will fail to find the same. When the program cannot locate the extend.dat file, it will automatically create a new one.

Follow the above steps fix cannot start Outlook problems. For more support on the same, feel free to drop into our Outlook support and help forum.