Delete Exchange 2003 Public Folder
Recently our Exchange 2003 Enterprise server had a database corruption and I have to create aNEW Exchange server andrestorethe old backup to the new server. The new server has a different name as the old one. The organization name is also changed from "OLDSERVER" to "NewMailServer". After that, I found there are two Public Folder Storage in my Exchange Organization.One is in the First Storage Group, sit with the user mailbox Storage with name "Public Folder(OLDSERVER)". The other one is in the Secondary Storage Group with name "Public Folder(NewMailServer)". Both storage now has "similar" contents. The user mail Store is point to "public folder(NewMailServer)". So the one in the First Storage Group is not being used. I tried to remove "Public Folder(OldServer)" but it says I have to remove all the replicas first. When I click "Move all replicas" it ask for another Exchange server, which we do not have. My question is how to remove this public folder? Do we have to create another Exchange server in the domain so we can move the not used Public Folder to it and delete from the current server?Thanks
July 9th, 2009 2:46am

When you said that the organization name changed, do you mean that the Exchange server name changed? It sounds like there are still traces of the old Exchange server in your directory. Someone may disagree with me on here, but I would delete the old Exchange server from ADSIEDIT.MSC. This is *not* a trivial thing to do since you could accidentally delete the wrong server. If you have not installed the Windows Server 2003 Support Tools from your W2K3 CD, then do so. Then, run ADSIEDIT.MSC. I am assuming that your administrative group name is First Administrative Group. I am also assuming that your old server name is OLDSERVER and that it is gone forever. If it is not gone, then do NOT follow these steps.Navigate down to:Configuration -> Services -> Microsoft Exchange -> [YourOrgName] -> Administrative Groups -> First Administrative Group -> ServersLocate OLDSERVER and right click on it. Ask yourself, are you really sure that OLDSERVER is never coming back. If not, then choose Delete and remove it.Give Exchange a few hours to realize the old server (and database) is gone. This problem *should* clear up. You might want to read the other responses to this just in case someone has a cleaner way to clean this up.Jim McBee - Blog - http://mostlyexchange.blogspot.com
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July 9th, 2009 3:50am

Hi Jim,Thanks for the reply. The "OLDSERVER" has physically been removed from the organization. Only the new server is nowsitting under First Administrative Group.
July 9th, 2009 5:07am

A more safe and probably supported way of doing it would actually to install a server with the old servers name in recovery mode and then uninstall it. This would remove the serverobject from AD and also verify that no other objects have ref. to the old server.http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa997239(EXCHG.65).aspxhttp://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/exchange/guides/ExMgmtGuide/835244ee-1b1e-4a88-abf1-b610bf689096.mspx?mfr=truelasse at humandata dot se, http://anewmessagehasarrived.blogspot.com
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July 9th, 2009 8:24am

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