Comments on: Starting Exchange Server with a blank Information Store

By: Jacqui Best

Jacqui Best — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 19:57:43 +0000

Om,
Please call John @ 727.345.9665 ext 203, this will be the fastest way for you to get help. Thanks

By: Jacqui Best

Jacqui Best — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 19:56:07 +0000

David,
You are very welcome. Let us know if we can be anymore help.

By: Jacqui Best

Jacqui Best — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 19:53:21 +0000

Om Joshi,
Your best bet would be to call in and speak with John.

By: Om Joshi

Om Joshi — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 13:42:51 +0000

Hi,

The article is very good. I need further help.

so, I followed all the step and i have the new database up and running. Now i want to restore mailboxes from old DB to new. I tried recovery storage group but could not find the DB which is the D:\ drive.

Can you please urgently help.

Regards,
Om

By: mobile geeks

mobile geeks — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 03:16:55 +0000

thanks for the article, I used it at a clients.

By: David

David — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 03:39:03 +0000

I would like to thank you as I am working on a project with a dead exchange server corrupt database on the server and the backups.

this helped me out alot.

By: Om Joshi

Om Joshi — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 14:03:14 +0000

Hi, Thanks for sharing the procedure for creating new Exchange Database.

I have a very simple queries, which are:

1. What happens to existing mailboxes within the old db?
2. Do they get copied into new DB? or should be imported separately?
3. Is there any option to archieve only mailboxes? i.e. using date range, without using outlook any option or rule in exchange 2003 which does this automatically?

Look forward to hearing from you with favourable reply.

Thanks,
Om

By: Jacqui Best

Jacqui Best — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 16:58:26 +0000

Aravind,
You would need to contact John in order to get the answers you need.

727-345-9665 ext 205

By: Aravind

Aravind — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 09:51:09 +0000

Brilliant article. Many Thanks.

I have a similar scenario. well i can export out the user’s mail box and import them via exmerge to the new store. but before proceeding i am concerned about the system created mailboxes.

How are the System Attendant, System Mailbox and SMTP mailboxes managed or exported or recreated? Or do they need to be exmerged like a users mailbox or not?

Thanks

By: joe

joe — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 00:11:05 +0000

Is it normal to get an error when I open Outlook on a client station after going throught his process about the server creating a temporary mailbox? It appears I have to create a new profile for all of my client stations after going through this process.

BTW, thanks for this info!! It is very helpful!

By: eric kipkorir ng'etich

eric kipkorir ng'etich — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 15:30:20 +0000

I have successfully renamed mdbdata files, but then their is nom connection with exhange server, please help.

By: Francois

Francois — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 15:07:16 +0000

Since theres Exchange 2007 out now, will this still be possible and does anyone have the documented procedure to do this please? I am busy with DR testing in my lab.

By: Michael Stankard

Michael Stankard — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 20:48:39 +0000

Ravi,

Can you be more specific about the problem you are having? What version of Exchange and what error code are you getting?

By: Ravi kumar

Ravi kumar — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 12:02:26 +0000

sir
Can I solve smtp problem in exchange system manager

By: yba

yba — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 17:56:30 +0000

Hi,
Thanks John.
The problem was that I was logged in with my name. I simply logged off and on again with a different name and things went smooth. All mailboxes have been moved to the new store. I have dismounted the old store and moved its files to a safe place for later deletion. In general, things seem within norms, so far ,except for These
A – system mailboxes.
There are four system mailboxes with a different remarks:
1 – System Attendant: Marked for deletion and when i use reconnect, no relevant account name shows. Same applies for a mailbox called Calender Connector. Both boxes are of 0 kb size.
2 – SMTP ans SystemMailbox: both are doubled with one of each marked for deletion.
Any idea on why these are so?

B – Backup works again. I intend to delete the default first storage group (now dismounted) since it is not working now. Is it ok to do so?

Regards
Yba

By: John Best

John Best — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 22:08:21 +0000

YBA,

Answers to your questions:
1. Here are some things I would try:
a. If the system attendant is configured to start with your account, I would change that to a different account.
b. If you have Active Directory Connector(Exch 2000 & 5.5 mixed environment) installed, try stopping it and see if that helps.
c. Create a new account, give it the appropriate permissions for Exchange server and use it to move your mailbox.
d. Go to your workstation and log into Outlook. Click on File–> Import and Export, export your mailbox to a PST file. Then configure your account to use the new Exchange server, connect to it and then Import the PST file. (since it is only 1 account that is having issues, this could be a viable work-around.)
e. If you have Outlook 2003 or later and cached mode is enabled, your computer will have an OST file on it. This OST file can be converted to a PST file, which can be imported into the new database.
f. If you are still having issues, give me a call at 727-345-9665. We will definateley find a solution to your problem.

2. Exchange will not move corrupt data to a non corrupt database, so yes this is a “cure”, so to speak. However, whatever caused the data to get corrupt in the first place (for instance Anti-Virus software which was not configured to EXCLUDE the MDBDATA directory for its real time scan) could very well corrupt the new database if not taken care of.

3. I hate to delete anything. I have seen WAY too many instances where someone has deleted, only to find out they REALLY need what was deleted. I recommend copying it off somewhere and waiting 2 weeks. After 2 weeks if you are SURE you no longer need it, then delete it.

Hope this helps,
John

By: yba

yba — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 17:48:57 +0000

Hi,
Thanks big time for your care and prompt reply John.
I have chosen another procedure that came under my hand, which has started from your article here, the blank database.
I have created a new blank information store and started moving mailboxes to it. The process is still ongoing now and is smooth and flawless. However, I ran across a problem.
I’m unable to move my own mailbox. The errors returned were 9175, 9168 and 1008. I came to understand that it might be because the system attendant is logged on under my user account. I have two questions/requests:
1 – How to move my own email box?
2 – Is this approach a “real” cure for the corrupt part of the database and that mailboxes now reside in a brand-new, healthy database.
3 – The old database is still of the same size, can I simply delete it?

Regards
Yba

By: John Best

John Best — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 17:03:15 +0000

YBA,

You are correct about the best remedy in your situation being to import your data into a new database. You are going to want to use EXMerge to export your user mailboxes into PST files, create the blank database and then use EXMerge to import the data back in. I wrote an article on the import process which you can reference here:
http://www.dtidata.com/resourcecenter/2007/05/11/exchange-server-tools-use-exmerge-import-pst-files/
Using EXMerge to export is very similiar, you will need to follow the same process for setting mailbox permissions and instead of choosing step 2 for import as explained in the article, you will choose the first step for export.

Let me know if this helps,

John

By: yba

yba — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 15:33:35 +0000

Hi,
Great article. The best I saw amongst others. The best thing is that it has illustrations and is explained in a streaming format.
I have a question please.
We are running Exchange 2003 SP2 standard, with a single store.
I’m facing error 478 while trying to backup. The corrupt database is the stm one but Exchange server is up and running, fine and dandy
I have done some readings and come to understand this:
1 – The stm database hols, among other things, attachments.
2 – There is very little chance I can get back that damaged part of the database and personally, I’m willing to sacrifice the corrupt part(s) regardless of the user(s).
3 – The best remedy in my scenario is to create a new store and upload (or merge, whatever the right term would be) the current mailboxes into the new database.

If number 3 above it correct, and as you have just detailed the procedure on creating and mounting a blank database, can you please talk about imprting mailboxes into the new database?

Regards
Yba

By: jbest

jbest — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 17:32:50 +0000

David, I am sure it is probably too late now, but in case anyone else runs into this problem I will try to answer your question. I would not recommend anyone ever run a repair on their database directly from the exchange database directory. You should always copy the database to a different location and then run Eseutil on the copy. But in the case where it is too late to do that, this is what I would do:
1. In earlier versions of Exchange, the database directory parameter was stored in the registry, so you could change the path to a different folder (e.g. D:\Program Files\Exchsrvr\MDBDATA-New) and then follow the steps to mount the store. But in Exchange 2000 and later, that information is stored in the Active Directory.
2. Using Exchange System Manager to try and move the location and/or filename will not work because doing so causes Exchange to copy the current database to the new location.
3. You will need to use ADSI Edit to edit the Active Directory to modify the location of the Data files. Be sure to set both the EDB file location as well as the STM file location. Also set the Log file path to a new location as well. I would pick a new Folder such as MDBDATA-NEW. (Be sure to actually CREATE that folder manually on the drive.)
4. Once the paths are modified to the new location, mounting the mailbox store will see that the data files do not exist and will then create new ones.

Here is a Knowledgebase article that explains manually setting the database directory with ADSI Edit:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/822676

I hope this helps!

John

By: Michael Stankard

Michael Stankard — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 19:28:44 +0000

David,

I am sending this to one of our Exchange engineers for an answer.

By: David Jacobs

David Jacobs — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 10:12:48 +0000

Hi,

I have 3 mailstores, and only 1 store is corrupt, i am busy with a repair, and I cannot rename the folder, can I create a new file, with a different filename, and just mount that store to create an empty one?

Thanks

By: Dhunt

Dhunt — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 12:55:00 +0000

Great article I have had to use this myself