Cannot Remove exchange 2003 - Users must be moved to a mailbox store on a different Server
I have recently installed a new server on our network that was to replace our existing Exchange 2003 Server. The new server is working fine and allmailboxes have been moved on to the new server. I am now trying to uninstall Exchange Server from the old server and get this message: The component 'Microsoft Exchange Messaging and Collaboration Services cannot be assigned the action "Remove" because: -One or more users currently use a mailbox store on this server. These users must be moved to a mailbox store on a different server or be mail disabled before uninstalling this server. I have done all I know to do. I have searched Active Directory for all users that has a mailbox on this server and no users are found. All I see in the mailbox store under System Manager is the System Attendent, SMTP, etc mailboxes. What do I need to do to correct this? I have checked AD Users following the KB articles and searched by the mail server, no users are listed, this server has only the 3 system mailboxes which cannot be removed within AD Users, Public folders have been moved to the new server and I have powered down the old server for a week and no issues or complaints from users. Exchange simply will not remove, both servers are Exchange 2003 SP2 running on Server 2003 SP2.
June 10th, 2008 9:17am

Hello, Open ADU&C & do a custom search -> Advance and give below string & see if you can find any users on server. (&(mailnickname=*)(msExchHomeServerName=*ServerName*)) If not then you can remove the database manually from Active Directory. Open ADSIEdit.msc and go to below path Configuration -> CN=Services -> CN=Microsoft Exchange -> CN=<ORG Name> -> CN=Administrative Groups -> CN= <Admin Group Name> -> CN=<Server Name> -> CN=InformationStore,CN -> CN=<Storage Group Name> Find the Mailbox Store name and delete it and then try to uninstall the server. Still you get the same error then you can manually remove Exchange 2003 from server by following below link. How to remove Exchange Server 2003 from your computer
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June 10th, 2008 10:01am

Hi thanks for the information, I had to carry out amanual remove but it is now gone. Thanks for you help
June 10th, 2008 10:55am

Hi, You can find which users are still using the mailbox store with adsiedit.msc Open ADSIEdit.msc and go to below path Configuration -> CN=Services -> CN=Microsoft Exchange -> CN=<ORG Name> -> CN=Administrative Groups -> CN= <Admin Group Name> -> CN=<Server Name> -> CN=InformationStore,CN -> CN=<Storage Group Name> - > Mailbox Store Name Open the mailbox store properties and find "homemdb" There you will find a list of the exchange accounts still on that mailbox store.
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June 10th, 2008 10:57am

Greetings, Performing a Exchange 2003 -> 2010 Upgrade All went well, followed Technet instructions. Went to uninstall Exchange 2003 I had the same issue but resolved it. Then received and error during uninstall of 2003, it looked like it was going to cancel the installation (and the dialog said that) now it seems half uninstalled. Exchange no longer in Programs so can not run uninstall again. Some part are there some are goon. Do not care about the server but want to get it out of AD. Can not find uninstall logs. Any help would be appreciated. - joe
May 19th, 2010 11:36pm

This post helped me find the culprit AD accounts: http://www.minasi.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=33520 Dan J
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June 16th, 2011 10:25am

I ran into this same issue. When I perform the search on the Exchange 2003 server running Windows 2003 I couldn't find anything other than system mailboxes. I performed an AD search on the new 2008 server running Exchange 2010 and found one additional object that had Exchange attributes. I removed its Exchange attributes then the un-install ran fine. From within ADUC on server 2008 right click the root of your domain, click Find…, click Advanced, and click Field, User then Exchange Home Server. For the condition select Ends with and in the value type the name of the Exchange server you are decommissioning. Click Find now and you should see the culprit that’s causing the problem. Right click it and remove its Exchange attributes, now you should be able to uninstall the server. Newbee Laserman thanks for the trick.You save my day :)
November 28th, 2011 6:31am

Amit - I've already gone through the process of manually removing all Exchange 2003 servers from AD. I ran the above LDAP query and found two old SystemMailbox accounts that have attributes associated with my legacy Exchange 2003 servers. Can I just delete these user accounts? Thanks
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May 30th, 2012 3:02pm

Yes, just delete the user account if you are not using.After the deletion of the account you have to remove recepient update server vices form the ad using adsiedit and then remove the exchange 2003. thanks murali
May 31st, 2012 4:54am

Yes, just delete the user account if you are not using.After the deletion of the account you have to remove recepient update server vices form the ad using adsiedit and then remove the exchange 2003. thanks murali
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May 31st, 2012 4:54am

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