Run NTBackup on the Exchange server and backup the private and public information stores. You can also stop the Exchange services if you have not done so already and perform a flat file backup of the Exchange databases and logs. To find out the location of the database and log files in Exchange 2003 and 2000, check the properties of each storage group. In Exchange 5.5 check the database paths tab of the server properties object. <i>As an addition, if you just copy the .edb/.stm/.log files to an external hard drive, you can use Ontrack's PowerControl's to get to the data, if you need it in the future. You will find it very challenging to get to the data in any other way (whether it was backed up, or copied).</i> Actually, you can use OnTrack Power Controls to directly access the databases from tape as well, in addition to other offline storage mediums as described in the paragraph above. I have used it in the past, great too and good catch by the way!

Run NTBackup on the Exchange server and backup the private and public information stores. You can also stop the Exchange services if you have not done so already and perform a flat file backup of the Exchange databases and logs. To find out the location of the database and log files in Exchange 2003 and 2000, check the properties of each storage group. In Exchange 5.5 check the database paths tab of the server properties object. <i>As an addition, if you just copy the .edb/.stm/.log files to an external hard drive, you can use Ontrack's PowerControl's to get to the data, if you need it in the future. You will find it very challenging to get to the data in any other way (whether it was backed up, or copied).</i> Actually, you can use OnTrack Power Controls to directly access the databases from tape as well, in addition to other offline storage mediums as described in the paragraph above. I have used it in the past, great too and good catch by the way!