Can I Recover Old Mail from Log Files and Information Stores?

4 Apr 2006 2:40 PM

Chickenbones

I have a client who was running Exchange 2000 in a single-DC environment.
Their server crashed. They decided to replace it with a new server and
upgrade to Exchange 2003 in the process. On top of that, we took the
oportunity to rename their internal domain. (Their external domain has not
changed -- everyone's e-mail address is the same.) I have access to all
their old mail files: priv1.edb, priv1.stm, all log files, etc. Is there any
way to import their old mail into their new mailboxes with the data I have or
is my only option to build another server with Exchange 2000 and copy the old
mail files onto that followed by a migration? Any help is appreciated.

4 Apr 2006 4:35 PM

Paul Ford

I think the combination of a different version of Exchange and a different
domain name may make it more complex to recover. Easiest way is to build a
server that mirrors the old server i.e. servername, version of Windows and
hotfixes/service packs, version of Exchange and hotfixes/service packs and
then use exmerge (available from www.microsoft.com) to extract the mail from
the mailboxes and then you can use exmerge to merge the data into the new
server. You will lose single instance storage but this is probably the
easiest method.

Regards

Paul Ford
Edge IT Ltd

Show quote

"Chickenbones" <Chickenbo***@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:3B5F1590-D1F6-4B15-89D7-95B35A711074@microsoft.com...
>I have a client who was running Exchange 2000 in a single-DC environment.
> Their server crashed. They decided to replace it with a new server and
> upgrade to Exchange 2003 in the process. On top of that, we took the
> oportunity to rename their internal domain. (Their external domain has
> not
> changed -- everyone's e-mail address is the same.) I have access to all
> their old mail files: priv1.edb, priv1.stm, all log files, etc. Is there
> any
> way to import their old mail into their new mailboxes with the data I have
> or
> is my only option to build another server with Exchange 2000 and copy the
> old
> mail files onto that followed by a migration? Any help is appreciated.

4 Apr 2006 4:50 PM

Chickenbones

Thanks, Paul. That's what I figured, and what I'll probably start doing
today, but I'm still hoping for a magic answer. :-)

Show quote

"Paul Ford" wrote:

> I think the combination of a different version of Exchange and a different
> domain name may make it more complex to recover. Easiest way is to build a
> server that mirrors the old server i.e. servername, version of Windows and
> hotfixes/service packs, version of Exchange and hotfixes/service packs and
> then use exmerge (available from www.microsoft.com) to extract the mail from
> the mailboxes and then you can use exmerge to merge the data into the new
> server. You will lose single instance storage but this is probably the
> easiest method.
>
> Regards
>
> Paul Ford
> Edge IT Ltd
>
> "Chickenbones" <Chickenbo***@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:3B5F1590-D1F6-4B15-89D7-95B35A711074@microsoft.com...
> >I have a client who was running Exchange 2000 in a single-DC environment.
> > Their server crashed. They decided to replace it with a new server and
> > upgrade to Exchange 2003 in the process. On top of that, we took the
> > oportunity to rename their internal domain. (Their external domain has
> > not
> > changed -- everyone's e-mail address is the same.) I have access to all
> > their old mail files: priv1.edb, priv1.stm, all log files, etc. Is there
> > any
> > way to import their old mail into their new mailboxes with the data I have
> > or
> > is my only option to build another server with Exchange 2000 and copy the
> > old
> > mail files onto that followed by a migration? Any help is appreciated.
>
>
>