I'm a noob.I accidentally set our spam filters whitelist folder to our inbox thinking I was telling it to put whitelisted items into the inbox. Instead, I was telling it to add all items in the inbox to the whitelist. 2 users inboxes were eatten. Thankfully, we do daily backups, so at most they've lost only the emails from yesterday that they didn't put in a new folder. I talked with the spam filter company and they said the only way to get the emails back would be to restore them from a backup.Unfortunately... I don't know how to do that. How exactly do I get the emails off the backup and into the user's inboxes?

Hi Kayden, First off this is important enough that you should consider engaging someone professionally (since no one on the internet can give you an accurate assessment since you may forget to mention details and/or we may overlook them since they don't look very scary in Arial 10pt font). That said, I am assuming that you were backing up your database (.edb file). That said if you wiped out all of your users (and they have not received recent mail that needs to be retained - you can break the connection between your Spam box and Exchange - the spam box will archive your mail until flow is restored). You could then restore back the .edb which will put all users back to the point in time of the backup. If you need to do message level restore, then you will probably want to look at OnTrack PowerTools which will allow you to "open" the exchange db and see individual items. -matt

There's no easy way to merge the active mailbox with the backup?I have no idea how the backup works. It was set up some time ago by a guy that hasn't been here for quite some time. As I know it, ntbackup just backs up the whole drive and the computer config to a removable drive.I don't want to unattach their current mailboxes and attach the backups, wouldn't that remove all the emails they've received in the interim?

Hi Kayden, If you simply choose to use the old db, then the new emails go away. If you need to do something more advanced you will either need to take a shot at using a 3rd party tool such as Power Controls or you will want to get someone in to handle the restore for you. It is not a terribly cut and dried process and can become very complicated depending on how your backups are structured. -matt

Hi, If mail itemshave deleted recently then you can check in dumpster, by default mail items stay in dumpster for 7 days, if it is not changed. Recovering Deleted Items in Exchange Server 2003 (Part 1) http://www.msexchange.org/tutorials/Recovering-Deleted-Items-Exchange-Server-2003-Part1.html If you can not find it there then you may need to identify how your Exchange database backed up and you can restore that toRecovery Storage Group and merge the data from Recovery Storage Group to originalmailbox with exmerge but as Matthew suggested you need a professional. Exchange 2003 Backup and Restore with NTBACKUP http://www.msexchange.org/tutorials/Exchange-2003-Backup-Restore-NTBACKUP.html

I'm supposed to be the professional. =(I already checked the dumpster. I don't know where the whitelisted items go, but it sure isn't there.I've already started pulling out the mailbox database and I've got the PowerControls waiting.

I can't believe I forgot to say it's Exchange Server 2007.Ok, I can believe I forgot.

O! o! o! o! o!I fixed it!They were deleted by circumventing the Delete bin, but still in the dumpster after a registry edit. To modify the registry, follow these steps: Go to Start, select Run, type regedit and then click OK. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Exchange\Client\Options Right click on right side frame, then go to New, select DWord Value, type DumpsterAlwaysOn and then complete the value field with a 1 (Figure 5) Restart Outlook Professional +1

Nice, that is way I was wondering that why those didnt show in dumpster.