I have an Exchange 2003 Standard server that is hitting the 75G limit. My .stm file is 52G and .edb file is 28G. This server is mainly accessed by Entourage clients on Macs. I have deleted a lot of client email. According to Event 1221 I have only 27M of free space. If I add up all the mailbox sizes it comes to 67G. I have tried an offline defrag but the .stm file does not decrease in size. Any ideas on how to get the size under the limit? Thanks, Ken Lynde

Note that Event 1221 only shows the minimum free space in the edb file, not the stm, however when you do an offline defrag, both the stm and edb are compressed.What is your deleted item retention set to? That needs to be considered. If you want to remove items quickly, you can set it to 0, then ensure IS Maintenance completes and monitor the 1221 events.More Info:http://support.microsoft.com/kb/828070Exchange Server 2003 mailbox store does not mount when the mailbox store database reaches the 16-GB limitFor a more accurate number on free space , use eseutil with the /ms switch:http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa997972(EXCHG.80).aspxAlso note that if you move mailboxes to another store, the messages in the stm file will be moved and removed from the stm and promoted to the edb store on the destination store!

The deleted item retention was set to 7 days from mail and 30 for mailboxes. I set them both for 0 and will see what happens. When I deleted large amounts of email I went in through OWA and deleted the messages from the 'Recover Deleted Items' screen. The next time the database is offline I will try the exeutil /ms and see what it says. Thanks, Ken

Be sure to set it back afterwards! :)