Hi, I have an Exchange 2007 installed on a Windows 2008 Std Server that is also a DC with FSMO (primary domain). It was working for years and the HDD of the Windows 2008 failed and the backup was no good so I could not restore. I do have a second DC in the forest (the last DC), so I force took over the FSMO to this DC. Then I reinstalled the Windows 2008 Std back on the effected server (new set of HDD) but now I just join the domain and the server is not a DC. When I tried to reinstall Exchange it would not allow because it say that the server exists so only an recoverserver option was possible. I did that but then it would stop at the mailbox role with the error that the mailbox object exists, I cannot even uninstall. That leave me no choice but to reinstall the OS again, delete the Exchange objects via ADSIEdit on the primary DC. This time the install of Exchange 2007 completed and is working. I can connect via the OWA but the problem with Outlook 2007 where client could not connect to the server, it can discover the server (the SSL cert warning popup) but just error out when trying to login. BTW the client PCs are not joined to the domain and it was like that before the original setup crashed and was working well. I have also configured the Autodicovery to cater for non-domain client as per MS recommendation. What else could I be missing. Thanks.

What you are missing is that you did something you should not have done. You should have not gone into ADSI Edit and dleeted objects because that is not supported. You should restore your Active Directory from backup using an authoritative restore to get your original Exchange organization back. You may be able to have some success with the third-party tools that purport to be able to get data out of an information store backup, such as OnTrack Power Controls or Quest Recovery Manager.Ed Crowley MVP "There are seldom good technological solutions to behavioral problems."

What you are missing is that you did something you should not have done. You should have not gone into ADSI Edit and dleeted objects because that is not supported. You should restore your Active Directory from backup using an authoritative restore to get your original Exchange organization back. You may be able to have some success with the third-party tools that purport to be able to get data out of an information store backup, such as OnTrack Power Controls or Quest Recovery Manager.Ed Crowley MVP "There are seldom good technological solutions to behavioral problems."