Information Store Viewer |
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By Scott Schnoll
19 Apr 2004 | SearchExchange.com |
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The following is Tip #21 from "25 Exchange 2003 Tips in 25 minutes." This content is
excerpted from Scott Schnoll's book, "Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 Distilled," brought to
you by © (2004)
Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Addison-Wesley
Professional. Return to the main page for
more tips on this topic.
The Information Store Viewer, MDBVU32.EXE, also known as the Message Store Viewer, is used
to view and configure message storage files in a mailbox store, a public folder store, a
.PST file, or an offline store (.OST) file. MDBVU32.EXE uses MAPI 1.0 calls to connect to a
MAPI-based message store. As illustrated in Figure 10.2, you can use it to view or delete
messages, folders, rules, and scripts; access system mailboxes; and change raw data.
When you encounter this tool, you might get a chuckle out of its icon, which is a flaming
drum of toxic nuclear waste. This should be your first clue that this tool can be very
hazardous to a message store. Because it provides write access to raw message store data, a
wide variety of problems can occur if the wrong item is changed or deleted. More
importantly, the tool has no "undo" feature, so you should make sure you have a current full
backup of your message store(s) before using this tool.
For details on how to install and use MDBVU32.EXE, consult the Read Me file included
with this tool.
Get more "25 Exchange 2003 Tips in 25 minutes." Return to the main
page.
About the author: Scott Schnoll, an Expert on SearchExchange.com, is an MCT,
MCSA and a long-time Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP).
In addition to writing "Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 Distilled," he is a co-author of the
upcoming "Exchange 2003 Resource Kit from Microsoft Press" and lead author for "Exchange
2000 Server: The Complete Reference."
Scott has written numerous articles for Exchange & Outlook Magazine, and is a regular
speaker at Microsoft conferences, including MEC and TechEd, as well as industry conferences
such as Comdex and MCP TechMentor, where he covers topics such as Exchange, clustering,
Internet Information Services and security.
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