Fixing an Outlook Data File (.pst)

I have been experiencing a severe hard disk crash for the past 2 weeks now which made my life so miserable, I managed to restore my 4.5 GB Outlook Data File and I was so happy trying to open it in windows 2010, and instead of celebrating this victory, I was hit with an error that stated:

"the file is not an outlook data file (.pst)" !!!

I started googling the error and I found the following KB article from Microsoft:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/272227

it was talking about using a Microsoft Office built in utility called "Microsoft Outlook Inbox Repair Tool" (scanpst.exe). I opened it, browsed for my pst file, and hit the "start" button, had to wait for sometime to scan the file and wait again to fix it by the utility (my data file was big in size)
and at the end: BINGO!!!! the File is repaired and I was able to open it in my outlook 2010.