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Exchange Mailbox Deleted!

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7 replies

by deming schools network

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Help! I have prematurely deleted a mailbox in Exchange 5.5 that has important mail in it. Is there any way to recover the mailbox? I have a backup, will I have to recreate the entire server to get that one mailbox?

I should know better than tostart the day without coffee! :-)

7 replies

by maxwell edison

You can use the deleted items recovery feature. Deleted items recovery is turned off by default. You must turn it on for each private information and public store, and you must specify a certain number of days that the server will retain deleted items.

See this link:

http://www.mike-tech.com/article95.htm

Another helpful sorce:

Microsoft article Q178630, "How to Recover Items That Do Not Touch the Deleted Items Folder"

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;KO;q178630

http://www.mvps.org/exchange/setdumpster_frames.htm

http://www.itsconnection.com/Outlook/DeletedItemsRecovery2/DeletedItemsRecovery.htm

Remove any spaces that snuck into the pasted URLs.

Maxwell

by deming schools network

From what I can find...deleted mailboxes cannot be recovered from the deleted items retention. It will only work for individual mail items.

Thanks!

by brasslet

Deleted item retention won't help you recover an entire mailbox in Exchange 5.5.

You need to build a recovery server, restore the backup to it and extract the mailbox to a .pst file.

If you need articles on this, TechNet is full of them. Or, e-mail me and I can send you whatever you need.

by deming schools network

Thank you. You just confirmed what I had been able to find searching through the tons of documentation I have. I do have regular backups...but wish I could restore just one mailbox without building a recover server.

by lordinfidel

FYI- Answer 2 is on the correct track. Almost The only way to recover a mailbox is to restore it to a recovery server from a backup. This is tricky though because the recovery server has to be the same name as the original one.

I say almost because this is great time to mention that not only should you back up your exchange server using NTbackup locally.

You should get a 3rd party solution to Backup(COPY) all mailboxes and mail. Veritas' Backup Exec with Exchange Option is great for this function. Although it is pricey.

Word of warning, DO NOT do a normal backup! Use the copy function. This is true of any method you choose. A normal/incremental/differential destroys the checkpoint that exchange needs (this is the same for sql server).

I do 2 backups- 1 backup locally daily at the server level thru NTBackup. And 1 daily full copy thru Backup Exec. Backup exec allows me to restore ind mailboxes and mail.
NTBackup allows me to quickly restore the entire mailserver.
No points needed... I have enough.... this is just some info for you.

by deming schools network

Thanks for the info. I have been using only NTBackup daily, so I hope I'm able to get what I need. It happened to be one of the most important mailboxes in the place! (Of Course)

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