One of my outlook files (.pst) seems to have gone corrupted. This
could have happened due to a couple of reasons 1) The file size was
touching 2GB 2) My laptop abruptly shutdown when outlook was running
which could have caused the corruption.

The system does not even allow me to copy the file (the file name is
"OLD") to a backup location. It says "cannot copy OLD: Data error
(cyclic redundancy check)."

Please suggest a solution to repair the file (its a .pst) / recover my
mail from the file.

Thanks,

Saffy

An abrupt shutdown while outlook was running probably caused the corruption.  

Have you run scandisk or chkdsk?  I would suggest you do so, then try
copying the file.

Yes. An abnormal shutdown created the problem. 


scandisk - I can't locate this file on my C drive. I'm running windows XP.

chkdsk - ran this (no errors were reported) and then tried copying the
file. File copy returned the same error.

I believe it would be prudent to rule out physical media damage which
unfortunately can result from a hard shutdown.  Sometimes called a
head crash.  If the drive was accessing a block of data inside the PST
at the time of the abnormal shutdown then one or more sectors
constituting the PST could be rendered unreadable.  The poorly
doumented Windows chkdsk can detect logical inconsistencies in file
structures but doesn't detect (all) physical media problems.

The following utility from Hitachi can detect physical media problems
on Hitachi drives (for sure) and possibly on other manufacturer's
modern drives as well.

Read the manual.  It has quick tests and more thorough ones.  These
are both safe.  However it also has a low level formatter (eraser) so
do *not* run it.

http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/download.htm#DFT

Your drive's manufacturer may also have a similar utility for their drive.

See also S.M.A.R.T. status