Exchange 2003 Recovery – No back up.
I have pub1.edb, priv1.edb, pub1.stm and priv1.stm. I also have some log files.
The exchange server has completely failed, and the back ups don't work. The company has since installed a new server, and a new AD.
Can I recover the mailboxes from the files I have and restore them to new mailboxes?
Many thanks for your time.
Bruce Clark
Software/Hardware used:
Software/Hardware used:
ASKED:
November 17, 2006 8:57 AM
UPDATED:
May 16, 2012 3:58 AM
Answer Wiki:
Do you have a backup of your old Active Directory? All exchange configuration data is saved in the AD. You can try to make a recovery installation of the exchange server. This is a supported task to move or recover an exchange server:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/exchange/Guides/SvrConsUsingE2k3/454d6010-ce35-4b50-91e0-49d342f7ce46.mspx?mfr=true
I think there is no way to restore an exchange server with standard tools without having the AD containing the exchange org.
It may be possible to access the IS, even a corrupted one, with "power controls" from "Ontrack" to copy the data to an PST file. But this is a very expansive way. You can get an free eval copy to test the access on the Ontrack home page:
http://www.ontrack.com/powercontrols/index.aspx?pageTarget=Welcome&buttonName=PowerControls
Good luck!
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Hi, I had the exactly same problem some months ago and all I did was to use Ontrack Power Controls, it’s a very very good tool.
After I had my new Excjange server, I used Ontrack ….. and I copied the old Exchange data to the new server, of course it’s not so easy to do that, you have to go user by user but what I cared was to recover the information.
Good luck
Calixto
Quest’s recovery manager for exchange does a great job of this. It can literally mount your EDBs and STMs right from the tape (or other) backup. Then you can do all sorts of stuff with the data to include exporting to pst files like exmerge. It may work with your EDB and STM and logs but you’d have to roll the dice and try it.
You can get a trial copy.
http://www.quest.com/recovery_manager_for_exchange/
This link may help you out. I’ve never done it before and the utilities mentioned already may be the best way.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/296788
Kenton
In the future you might want to backup by individual mailbox as well as by stores. If you had backed up by mailbox in the first place….
To do any recovery you should probably do this “offline” — especially since, from what little you said, your original failure might have been malware related. Plus I would not play with restores the first time agaisnt your live Exchange server. So for safety build a temporary DC to capture AD information from your live network. Well there are ways around live AD but this should make things go faster. Take it off your production network to play with. Add Exchange. Use your exact Exchange site, server name etc if you have the old documentation to make things easier yet.
Back on Exchange 2000 I have just dropped those files into a virgin install of Exchange instead of the empty files then used Eseutil and similar tools to rebuild indexes etc as if the indexes etc were corrupt to make things live. I am familarly sure you still can on 2003.
If you can pry open the stores then you can look up the procedures for renaming this experimental Exchange server so you can join it to your live Exchange structure and move mailboxes. Or backup Exchange by individual mailbox or to .pst’s.
Actually these attempts to recover old email go a lot better if completed before the new server is populated with mailboxes — or if the new mailboxes have a different naming convention. I always tried to work the two projects in parallel jumping back and forth as I waited for some install aspect to complete.
As is be careful you don’t get over enthuasiastic with successful recovery of old email and wipe out the new mailbox of the same name!
A previous comment had a malformed link. Correct link is:
http://www.msexchange.org/tutorials/Recovering-Failed-Exchange-2003-Member-Server-Using-Disaster-Recovery-Switch.html
If it can be done at all, those are the steps that should be followed.
Tom