I restored mail server from backup. However, everyone has lost all contacts and old emails. How can I shut down all services and retrieve eveyone's contacts and old emails. Any help would be appreciated. TIA

When you restored the mail server from backup did you restore the Exchange components i.e. priv.edb and pub.edb ? Were you using an Exchange aware backup when backing up the Microsoft Exchange server ? When you say they have lost contacts is this from their contacts folder in Outlook or from the Global Address List ? Regards Paul

Yes I restored priv.edb and pub.edb however, I made a copy of them before I restored them.(just in case). I was using Veritas... I ended up running a hard repair and removing all files from mdbdata folders and restarting the computer. Everything is back up and running, but on the client (Outlook) all folders and contacts are gone, but the global is there. I am trying to get back users (contacts) and (folders) they had before the server crashed. Thanks

Are all the users mailboxes empty ? How big is the priv.edb that you took a copy of compared to the one that you ran the hard repair against ? When you say you ran a hard repair and removed all the files from the mdbdata folder I presume you left the prov.edb file in their, did you just mean you removed all of the logs files. Paul

Yes, all the users mailboxes are empty. The priv.edb file is 4,738,056 KB. I ran a eseutil /p /ispriv and eseutil /p /ispub. After doing this I was still unable to get mail server up. So I took and copied all files that were in each of the mdbdata folders and put them in a temp folder. Then I deleted the file inthe mdbdata folders and rebooted he server. The server is back up and running but all contacts and folders are gone. I want t restore the priv.edb folder but everytime I replace the folders with the old files, exchange won't boot. I keep geting the error.7001 The exchange service depends on the information store service whice failed becausethe service has returned a specific error codeand7024 The Microsoft Exchange Information Store service terminated with service specific error 4294966766 in the system log. In the application log I get Error 0xfffffdee initializing the Microsoft Exchange Server Information Store database. When I look it up it says that the 2 databases aren't the same. I can't figure out how to correct this so that the exchange server will recognize that the databases are the same a start correctly. Thanks

Ok...the 4294966766 is bad log signature. Now, the databases have a signature and the log files have a signature (which is just a set of numbers in the header of the files) and they are both aware of the others signature, this is used so that only log files that relate to that database can be played in. The eseutil will create a new database (with a new signature) with a brand new signature so the old log files will be unable to be played into the database after the eseutil /p has been performed. First thing, when you tried to start the database before having to run eseutil, what where the errors that you recieved ? After running the eseutil you will need to move all of the log files out of the mdbdata folder and just have the edb files left in the folder and start the service and Exchange will then create log files that will contain the new database signature. One thing to bear in mind is that if you get the old priv.edb working then users will have lost the data from the new priv.edb so you will need to run something like exmerge to extract all the data out of the current priv.edb before putting the old one back in and then run exmerge after you have the old priv.edb working to bring all the new email in. Let me know if you have questions on this or if any of it does not make sense. Paul

Ok, let me make sure I understand this. First I want to run the eseutil /p on the priv.edb file and on the pub.edb file. Then remove all files from the mdbdata folders except edb. Once I have done this I am to restart the mail services and it will recreate thesignature file. Once this is done, all services should come back up. At this point, all new mail can be erased. I have advised all staff to make a hard copy of any emails they want until the files and folders are put back into place. Thanks

Before doing anything make a copy of the current priv.edb and pub.edb, then either run exmerge to extract current userdata out of the priv.edb or have the users export their folders to a pst file. Then you could try and put all the files back in place (the ones that you backed up before running eseutil) and see if it starts and troubleshoot it if it does not start, as eseutil should be a last ditch effort to get the store started as it can strip data out of the store. Other wise, clear the mdbdata data folder of all files and put the originalpriv.edb and pub.edb files back(the onesthat you took a copy of before you ran the eseutil) and run eseutil. Make sure there are no .log files, only the edb files and then restart the store and see if it starts. Paul

Thanks very much for all your help, I have learned a great deal about this exchange 5.5 over the last 2 weeks. I am completely up and running with all data, files and folders intact. Once again, THANK YOU !!!! THANK YOU !!!! THANK YOU

No probs, you are verywelcome. Glad you got everything back up and running. There is an article on Exchange 5.5 DR at http://www.microsoft.com/technet/archive/exchangeserver55/support/exdisrec.mspx?mfr=true Hope you dont have to do it again however its always worth "firedrilling" just to stay familiar with the process. Regards Paul