A colleague of mine accidently deleted an entire organizational unit from Active Directory in Windows Server 2003 that contained 100 user accounts. We've used the AdRestore utility on one of the accounts and it restored the user account, but didn't restore the mailbox links. What's the best way to fully restore these accounts and still retain each user's mailbox link?
Requires Free Membership to View
When you register, you’ll also receive targeted alerts from my team of editorial writers and independent industry experts with the latest news, tips, and advice to help you do your job more efficiently and effectively. Our goal is to keep you informed on the hottest topics and biggest challenges faced by Exchange professionals today working with Exchange, Outlook and other related technologies.
Margie Semilof, Editorial Director
Once you restore the mailbox with AdRestore you should be able to reconnect the mailbox from inside Exchange System Manager. After you see the mailbox show up with a red X beside it, right-click the mailbox and choose reconnect. You should be able to perform this operation in bulk as well. Going forward, you may want to invest in an Active Directory recovery tool.
Do you have comments on this Ask the Expert Q&A? Let us know.
This was first published in August 2009