PDA

View Full Version : 'exmerge' and exchange 5.5 lost mailboxes



fatkitkat
08-11-2006, 08:11 PM
Hi Guys
hope your are all yell.

I am not. I have a critical situation. We have used 'exmerge' (two stage) to secure user mailboxes into .pst files. on a MS exchange 5.5 server running W2k server.

Problem i have is that one of the .pst (managers mailbox as well) copied only has data upto 2004 when i restore the mailbox in outlook 2003 or outlook 2000.

I think its because i stopped the first exmerge backup that was running on this user. I then moved to another pc and re-ran exmerge from that user onwards. Why would data from 2004 to date be missing.

Any help idea's appreciated. cheer
fatkitkat(chunky by name chunky by nature):)

renwich
08-11-2006, 08:16 PM
would there be any restriction on size limit on the pst as opposed to 5.5, we use exmerge a lot on 2k\2k3 and I belive the pst limit is 2gig

fatkitkat
08-11-2006, 08:54 PM
Hi Renwich

you're right there is a size limit 2gb as you say. The exchange server has over 40gb free and the suspect mailbox is about 640mb large.

It does'nt seem to be size problem i think. Space is ample i am sure.

fatkitkat
(in the doodoo):sad:

fatkitkat
08-11-2006, 09:07 PM
sorry missed something that might be important.

Once the exmerge had run all the mailboxes where empty. The .pst files seem OK for the 50 odd other users (so lucky i have a .pst backup) but just the managers .pst file is missing data 2004 onwards.

Its werd i can't see any problems like this when i google the problem description.
Just thought this might help any resolve or highlight something.

thanks again
fatkitkat

renwich
08-11-2006, 09:09 PM
I presume u've checked that you havent filtered by date, you could try deleting the exmerge.ini

renwich
08-11-2006, 09:19 PM
he hasnt got any daft client side rules setup has he, or folders stashed, we spent hours panicing over the ceo's lost mail out of a single folder only to find out that it never contained any to start with lol

fatkitkat
08-11-2006, 09:37 PM
Definatly no cleint side rules Renwich. Have restored on different pc's too.
I know the mail exists as i looked at the inbox previous and then got user to shutdown ther outlook.

You say delete the exmerge.ini . Good idea

delete exmerge.ini and attempt restore of the pst back into exchange. right?

If so can i do a selective restore of the suspect .pst file targeting 2004 onwards. How best would i do this. May have to read up more on exmerge (still newbie on utility)

Any advice on how to do this Renwich if you already know it will help m8.

fatkitkat
(light at end of tunnel getting brighter)

renwich
08-11-2006, 09:51 PM
u can choose the users mailbox from the information store, u just need to indtify where it is, i never used 5.5 , easiest way to restore the pst is via an outlook client, just logon as your user and do an import

fatkitkat
08-11-2006, 11:33 PM
Renwich Thanks for your help.

I Will give it a blast tomorrow. Will update forum asap.

fatkitkat

fatkitkat
09-11-2006, 06:11 PM
UPDATE:-
used some sw named Ontrack Power Control.

This allowed me to see the PST (or if i want the actual mailbox in exchange)

Ontrack sw showed me the the last mail backed up was only upto 2004.

Exmerge seems to have trashed anything later? Owe well. Back to drawing board.

fatkitkat