eml files in public ms exchange folders

during a server reinstall a colleague (honest) had to transfer a public contacts list to a new ms exchange server. he just copied all the .eml files to a local disk and then created a new public folder and pasted the files into it. they all now appear as discussion items. ms Q281673 explains the problem. is there any fix?? (we have a copy of the entire c:\program files\exchsvr folder). Thanks