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Recovering mailbox and public folder data in Exchange 2000

An Exchange server has gone down. Is it possible to re-make the public files and mail with just the MDBDATA folder with a fresh install? If so, how?

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I'm assuming that you are referring to recovering data in Exchange 2000. There are two primary ways to recover mailbox data, and one for public folder data.

Mailbox data can be restored back to the recovery storage group (RSG). It can also be recovered on a hot spare server.

To recover the public folder data, you would need to mount the database on a hot spare server that is isolated from production. Once you have the data back online, you can use ExMerge or Pubmerge to extract the data into .PST files -- then you can import that back into your production mail environment. You should also consider looking into this webcast I did with David Sengupta on this topic of recovery.

Within the standard recovery context, you will lose the public folder data if you try to recover it through the Mailbox Recovery Center in Exchange System Manager, because it only allows you to mount mailbox stores.

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Related information from SearchExchange.com:

  • Tip: When the lights go out: Exchange disaster recovery
  • Reference Center: Exchange public folder managment

    • This was first published in September 2005

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