Remove Exchange from a server

[Norphy]

I'm trying to remove Exchange from a server as for various reasons I have migrated everything to another server. I have made sure all of the mailboxes are moved to the new server. The new server has all of the public folders, RUPs, SMTP servers etc. The new server is the routing group master.

 

I'm trying to remove Exchange from the old server but whenever I try it says that there are mailboxes on there and that they must be (re)moved before it will uninstall. The only mailboxes that are left on the thing are system mailboxes which can't be removed. There are no other mailboxes on it yet it refuses to uninstall.

 

Any ideas on how to get it removed?

 

Thanks,

 

Norphy

 

/edit: I'd like to avoid following this if possible

[Lord_Edam]

Have you followed all the steps for removing the first exchange server? Some of the public folders are mail-enabled, so could be giving the error you're getting. just having replicas on the new server isn't enough.

 

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/235396/

 

Also make sure you really have moved all the mailboxes by running this script and comparing the home mdb column. Ideally you should wait until everyone's logged on to their mailbox after it's been moved before nuking exchange, so that outlook catches up smoothly.