I have a customer whose employee made sure to not only delete their emails before they left the company, but they also 'permanently deleted' the emails from the recover deleted items area through Outlook. We use the Windows Backup that is built into SBS 2008 to do nightly backups of the server, so I was able to restore previous versions of the Exchange database into a Recovery Storage Group. I have then copied the contents of this user's mailbox into a separate mailbox that I created specifically for recovery purposes. When I open this new mailbox in Outlook, I have tried going to the recover deleted items section, but there are still no emails there. My questions is this - should I be able to recover all the messages in the recover deleted items folder when I copy a mailbox from an RSG? I am unclear as to whether this functionality should be part of the normal process, or if there is something special I need to do to get those emails back?

Emails should be in Inbox or whatever folder they deleted emails from. you have the entire mailbox as it was on the date you restored backup for. once you restore to older date emails should be in their respective folders where they were before beeing deleted. you do not need to "recover deleted items" from a already restored mailbox DhruvDhruv

1. It depends on when this user deleted the items and what your settings are on the dumpster. You may not need to perform a restore and you could use the dumpster always on key - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/886205 2. If you do do a restore then you can recover the items from the folders where the emails were residingm ie. Inbox, or any other sub-folders that may ave beeen under there, sent items etc... 4. You can also recover the 'soft deleted' items which you would find in te deleted items folder. 5. If it was a shift and delete, then most likely you will have to o point 1 or 2. Not sure what version of exch youre using so use the appropiate tool, i,e exch 2003 exmerger and 2007/2010 powershell comand you will find on technet.Sukh

My user was using Outlook 2007 together with Exchange 2007 (running on SBS 2008). The dumpster always on registry key is also set to 1 on all Outlook client stations. I guess I need to get the terminology right and make sure I fully understand what I'm asking about. My understanding of the different deletion mechanisms are as follows: Soft delete - this is where the item is simply deleted and resides in the Deleted Items folder Hard delete - this is where the user empties their Deleted Items folder or Shift+Deletes an email. These emails then go to the 'Recover Deleted Items' section of the mailbox. Extra hard delete - this is where the 'Recover Deleted Items' section has been purged by the user and the emails are no longer available for recovery through normal mechanisms. So I am at #3 above, where the user has purged their Recover Deleted Items folder and I need to get those emails back. Specifically I need to know whether the merge/copy process that is part of the Exchange Troubleshooting Assistant is supposed to restore these emails back to the Recover Deleted Items folder as they were in #2 above? To be clear, I have not yet done anything in Exchange PowerShell, only using the GUI tools built into ExTRA. So my next question would be if there is any difference between using the GUI and using the PowerShell commands? Does one provide any different restore capabilities over the other?

1. If your situation is #3 then perform a restore from backups. This is your only choice. The purge feature isn't that great in my opinion as it gives a headache to exch admin in such cases like yours, and there is no way to remove this as far as I know!. 2. Recover your DB to the RSG and then recover - http://www.petri.co.il/using_rsg_in_exchange_2007.htm - No major differences except shell is more flexible, both will recover your data from the RSG.Sukh

Thanks for your help with this. I think this is what I was looking for.

I have tried recovering mailboxes that I know have items in the 'Recover Deleted Items' section of the mailbox via the RSG process. So far I been unable to recover those items in the Recover Deleted Items section, as they simply do not appear after I have merged the mailbox I want to recover into another mailbox that I set up specifically for recovery purposes. What am I doing wrong if this is supposed to work?

Hi Warren, it is not possible to recover the mails using recover deleted items after the backup restore using either RSG or PST export. As dumpster resides on database and when mailbox deleted then it is also flushed. and wehen we restore the old mailbox from backup either using RSG or PST method, then it is either merge with new mailbox or save as a PST file. which does not have dumpster of deleted old mailbox. Thanks, Vidyanand

Hi Vidyanand, The mailbox was never deleted. My initial post outlines the situation that I'm facing, but the mailbox is still on the server and has not been deleted at all. I am trying to use an RSG to recover emails from the users mailbox that still exists on the Exchange server. I have multiple backups of the Exchange databases (once per night using the built-in SBS 2008 backup engine), so I am hoping to go back to a point where I can recover emails from the 'Recover Deleted Items' folder that were there during one of the backups. Thanks for your help, Warren

As mentioned above, your situation is #3 as bove. So you have to do a restore of the database to the point in time when the emails were in the default folders, i.e Inbox or sub folderst etc... Even though your mailbox is still on the server, it makes no difference, the emails were PURGED. You need to ask yourself, when you KNOW the emails were in this mailbox or think. Because if you have n idea, then you will be restoring through tapes until you find the data. As mentioned, in my previous post which may not have been clear, or not sure if the link was read, you then need to recover. If this user was clever enough, i.e, PURGED the emails before your backups and the messages arrived on that day, then you can't recover the data. This is something else you need to think about and be sure that the emails in question did exist before.Sukh

Okay, here is the sequence as best I can explain it, and what I am trying to achieve: On day 1 the user receives an email and deletes it. The email is now in the deleted items folder. Before the user leaves for the day, they empty the deleted items folder. The email is now in the 'Recover Deleted Items' section of the mailbox. That night, a full backup of Exchange is performed On day 2 the user remembers that there is a way to recover the email from the 'Recover Deleted Items' section, and decides to purge the email from this section What I am trying to find out is if I can recover that missing email from the backup that was done on day 1? If I recover the users mailbox, where does the email get restored to? Through testing, it does not get restored to the same 'Recover Deleted Items' section that it was in when the backup was made.

Okay, here is the sequence as best I can explain it, and what I am trying to achieve: On day 1 the user receives an email and deletes it. The email is now in the deleted items folder. Before the user leaves for the day, they empty the deleted items folder. The email is now in the 'Recover Deleted Items' section of the mailbox. That night, a full backup of Exchange is performed On day 2 the user remembers that there is a way to recover the email from the 'Recover Deleted Items' section, and decides to purge the email from this section What I am trying to find out is if I can recover that missing email from the backup that was done on day 1? If I recover the users mailbox, where does the email get restored to? Through testing, it does not get restored to the same 'Recover Deleted Items' section that it was in when the backup was made. Well, those items *should* be there, but I wonder if the merging ignores the dumpster. Since this is Exchange 2007 and you can still ues Exmerge against the recovery storage group, can you try with that instead and choose the recover from dumpster option? ( I think you can use exmerge against a 2007 RSG - its been ahwile!)

ok from your sequence it seems like the message was backed and then purged after the backups. What you can try is using exmerge as Andy suggested and use the Items from Dumpster option. Exmerge still works against 2007 edb. But you might have to get yourself a Win XP machibe to use exmerge, check out the system requirements. Sukh

Thanks for all the responses. I have not tried Exmerge yet as I do not have a 32bit client to run it from. I think I may have figured out where these emails are restored to though. During the Exchange backup, if an email that is in the 'Recover Deleted Items' section was originally deleted from the deleted items folder, then that is where it is restored to. This is true for other folders too - for example if an item was shift+deleted from the Inbox, then it will be restored back to the Inbox during the RSG mailbox recovery process. The 'Recover Deleted Items' section is thus empty after the restore as those emails are placed back in their original locations.

I though you checked that when I posted that before. Anways, post back. Cheers "2. If you do do a restore then you can recover the items from the folders where the emails were residingm ie. Inbox, or any other sub-folders that may ave beeen under there, sent items etc..."Sukh

Awesome, I'm glad to know the answer was in front of me the whole time :) I guess if I'd taken a little more time to understand what you were telling me, it might have saved a lot of wasted time. Anyways, thanks again for the help - I also marked your previous post as the correct answer. All the best.