Exchange 2003 public folder recovery

[Dos_Box]

Right, last week my Exchange server died.....totally. I put it down to Win 2K3 SP2 (which killed it a second time on re-install). I had to back up all of the Exchange folders, DB etc and install from scratch ofter removing Exchange from the domain. I have restored all the users mailboxes fine from tape, but due to my using Retrospect have no public folder backups barring the full information store backup (which failed twice on restore so I'm not trusting it anymore). Does anyone know of a solution of extracting public folder info or recovering it from the raw database (it is calendar info I'm after) files?

[PiqueABoo]

You've got copies of pub.edb & pub.stm on a disk somewhere? The bad news is that you're supposed to make a "recovery server" for this. If you've got vmware, the disk space and the time that might not be so bad..

 

 

..otherwise I expect someone somewhere will sell you something expensive that reads *.edb.

[Dos_Box]

You've got copies of pub.edb & pub.stm on a disk somewhere? The bad news is that you're supposed to make a "recovery server" for this. If you've got vmware, the disk space and the time that might not be so bad..

 

 

..otherwise I expect someone somewhere will sell you something expensive that reads *.edb.

 

Yes, yes and yes. I just don't have the time at the moment. I will though.

[m25man]

I had to do the same thing last week after a succesful Exch2k3 upgrade, then we upgraded the OS from 2k to 2k3.

It died and nothing would fix it.

 

As only the OS was screwed I just reset the Exchange server AD account, reinstalled the OS joined it to the domain as the same name server it used the existing machine account.

 

Reset the drive letters so they matched the old installation then re-installed Exchabge 2k3 with the /DisasterRecovery switch.

Updated to Exch2k3 SP2 and remounted the stores instant recovery.

 

All working sweet as.

 

So if you have an offline backup it's as simple as 1,2,3

Henrik Walther published a walkthrough here...

 

http://www.msexchange.org/tutorials/Recovering-Failed-Exchange-2003-Member-Server-Using-Disaster-Recovery-Switch.html

 

I have used it several times without problems.

 

My golden rules for exchange,

NEVER install it on a DC

Always have it on a partion with twice as much space as you thing you will allow the stores to grow to.

Always do an offline backup before performing any major changes to the server or the OS

[Dos_Box]

I had to do the same thing last week after a succesful Exch2k3 upgrade, then we upgraded the OS from 2k to 2k3.

It died and nothing would fix it.

 

As only the OS was screwed I just reset the Exchange server AD account, reinstalled the OS joined it to the domain as the same name server it used the existing machine account.

 

Reset the drive letters so they matched the old installation then re-installed Exchabge 2k3 with the /DisasterRecovery switch.

Updated to Exch2k3 SP2 and remounted the stores instant recovery.

 

All working sweet as.

 

So if you have an offline backup it's as simple as 1,2,3

Henrik Walther published a walkthrough here...

 

http://www.msexchange.org/tutorials/Recovering-Failed-Exchange-2003-Member-Server-Using-Disaster-Recovery-Switch.html

 

I have used it several times without problems.

 

My golden rules for exchange,

NEVER install it on a DC

Always have it on a partion with twice as much space as you thing you will allow the stores to grow to.

Always do an offline backup before performing any major changes to the server or the OS

 

I did all of that (I too had the backup) but to no avail. Time was against me. I have reintalled Exchnage, restroed the mailboxes from backup, but still cannot get my public folders back. Time to use my 2 free support calls to Microsoft I think.