I am fairly new to running an exchange server. One thing I was wondering is when a user deletes an email permantely from the Outlook, why can it still be seen on exchange server?

On Wed, 9 Jun 2010 18:57:51 +0000, tvppd wrote: >I am fairly new to running an exchange server. One thing I was wondering is when a user deletes an email permantely from the Outlook, why can it still be seen on exchange server? What do you mean by "deletes an email permanently"? Did they remove it from their "Recover Deleted Items..."? You can't really "see" a message on the Exchange server. It's kept in a database. When it's removed from the "dumpster" (either by the user or by the fact that the message has exceeded the deleted item recovery period), the space it occupied becomes reusable. It's possible the message may be discovered by examining the database (reading he sectors directly), but the space will, sooner or later, be reused. --- Rich Matheisen MCSE+I, Exchange MVP --- Rich Matheisen MCSE+I, Exchange MVP

Response from the inquiry above: The user permanently removes email from "Deleted Items" folder within Outlook. The user cannot retreive or see email anymore from workstation. However, I can still see email on exchange server within Symantec Exec Backup application and can still restore if needed. How long do they stay on a server that has "massive" space? Thanks

On Thu, 10 Jun 2010 13:46:17 +0000, tvppd wrote: >Response from the inquiry above: > >The user permanently removes email from "Deleted Items" folder within Outlook. Again . . . what do you mean when you say "permanently removes"? Have they simply emptied the Deleted Items folder, or deleted the message from the Deleted Items folder? If the anser is "yes" then that does NOT "permanently delete" the message. In Outlook, select the "Deleted Items" folder. Now use the "Tools | Recover Deleted Items..." menu. Until you remove the messages from the "dumpster" they're still present in the user's mailbox -- just in a state that makes them invisible. >The user cannot retreive or see email anymore from workstation. Did they try the "Recover Deleted Items" menu? >However, I can still see email on exchange server within Symantec Exec Backup application and can still restore if needed. That's not surprising. >How long do they stay on a server that has "massive" space? The data (not "the message") will remain in the database until it's overwritten. That doesn't mean it can be recovered by normal means. --- Rich Matheisen MCSE+I, Exchange MVP --- Rich Matheisen MCSE+I, Exchange MVP