Hello,We are using Exchange 2007 Server. We were using one database on which approx 1000 mailboxes were mounted.The size of that database reached 125GB, which was nearing our disk space. So, we created a New Mailbox Database on different drive and moved all the mailboxes to the new Database. So, this old database was virtually empty. Then we tried to offline defrag this old database after dismounting it. But, we just recovered a space of a few GBs.Why could I not recover all the space, as the entire database is empty?Our database has the following settings:Storage Limits = 10MB per MailboxKeep Deleted Items = 0 DaysKeep DeletedMailbox =7 DaysThanks in Advance.Regards,Denis

Did you wait for midnight onlinedefragmentation? Also what's the space it shows in event 1221 in application event log. BTW, if there isn't any mailboxes on the database, you can dismount the database, rename the edb file and mount the database which will create an empty database (edb file) for you and you don't have to spend time behinddefragmentation... ;)Amit Tank | MVP Exchange Server | MCITP: EMA | MCSA: M | http://ExchangeShare.WordPress.com

Hi Amit,Thanks for your valued reply.Actually, the old database is free as of now. So, we tried to defrag it after 15 days. Also, the online defragmentation shows just 35MB of free space.I can create a new Database file by dismounting and renaming the database files and then mounting the database. But, I just wanted to check the usefulness of ESEUTIL as well as the time it takes to defragment a file of approx 100GB.Is there anyway I can recover the space effectively with ESEUTIL? Or the Create a New Database and Move Mailboxes procedure is the best?Regards,Denis

Well, basically you can recover the space shown in the event id 1221 as a white space by using ESEUTIL. So before running offline defrag with ESEUTIL it is always recommended to make sure that onlinemaintenancecleaned up the space. White space shows in 1221 is the approx amount of space you can shrink with offline defrag. Online defragmentation has completed a full pass on the database; Review the Application log for event 1221 to make sure that online maintenance finished successfully http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb217852.aspx Also refer below article to understand the Exchange Database Disk Consumption... Understanding Exchange Databases Disk Consumption http://www.msexchange.org/articles/Exchange-Databases-Disk-Consumption.html However if I have space to create new database then I would prefer moving mailbox method instead of ESEUTIL... Refer below similar discussion... http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/exchangesvradmin/thread/e5c09707-d674-457a-bf14-7ebcfabbdf13/#b02ab9e6-65bf-4379-9afb-42a755dacd3a Amit Tank | MVP Exchange Server | MCITP: EMA | MCSA: M | http://ExchangeShare.WordPress.com

Hi Amit,Thanks for your valued reply and inputs.I appreciate your efforts. However I cannot understand, when the database if empty, then all the space is whitespace. So, if ESEUTIL does what it says, then why cannot it recover all the space?Thanks Amit for your valued time.Regards,Denis

It seems that online maintainance didn't cleanup the items/mailboxes from dumpster. Did you verify the size as perExchange Databases Disk Consumption article? You may increase the online maintainance window for empty database to cleanup the space and when it shows correct space in event 1221, you can run ESEUTIL to reduce the size...Amit Tank | MVP Exchange Server | MCITP: EMA | MCSA: M | http://ExchangeShare.WordPress.com

many thanks for the explanation Amit. so I take it that Exchange doesn't shrink down the DB size, unless we migrate the mailboxes into new DB and then delete the old one ?/* Server Support Specialist */