When we first setup Exchange we set it up with 2 databases for 40 people (140gb) each. I am now going to create 2 additional databases and spread out the mailboxes in a more balanced setup. I noticed something odd after creating a new database and moving my own account there that after the move finished my account is active and working in the new database but I now have a disconnected mailbox which I cannot manually delete in the EMS. I also noticed when running a get-mailboxstatistics -server cmdlet for displayname, totalitemsize and databasename that my mailbox shows up in the previous database and the new one. Any ideas? I don't want to do any bulk moves without knowing exactly what's happening here. Thanks.

How long are you waiting after you move your mailbox before you check the old database? Exchange should eventually purge that old mailbox (within a day) and then allow the space to be used by new mail. I have seen situations where E2K3 would hold on to deleted mailboxes for many months, but never seen that with E2K7 or E2K10. Jim McBee - Blog - http://mostlyexchange.blogspot.com

After about a day I went in and manually cleared the mailbox from the Move Reuqest section but still appears in the disconnected mailbox session. I should have also mentioned when running the remove-mailbox cmdlet I get a mailbox not found error but I literally run a show disconnected mailboxes cmdet just above it and copy over the mailboxid to the remove-mailbox cmdlet...

A disconnected mailbox stays around for the deleted mailbox retention period (default 30 days) unless you remove it using remove-mailbox with the -database and -storemailboxidentity parameters. For usage, see: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa995948(v=exchg.80).aspx J

Im aware of that but when I run that cmdlet is comes back with a mailbox not found.

What version of Exchange Server are you running? I just recently learned that E2K10 SP1 and SP2 keep the source mailbox around in a "soft deleted" state. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd298174.aspx Soft-Deleted Mailboxes When mailboxes are moved from an Exchange 2010 SP1 database to any other database, Exchange doesn't fully delete the mailbox from the source database immediately upon completion of the move. Instead, the mailbox in the source mailbox database is switched to a soft-deleted state. Mailbox data can be accessed during a mailbox restore operation using the MailboxRestoreRequest cmdlet set. The soft-deleted mailboxes are retained in the source database until either the deleted mailbox retention period expires or you use the Remove-StoreMailbox cmdlet to purge the mailbox. Note: Soft-deleted mailboxes require that both the source Mailbox server and the Client Access server performing the request be running Exchange 2010 SP1. To view soft-deleted mailboxes, run the Get-MailboxStatistics cmdlet against a database and look for results that have a DisconnectReason property with a value of SoftDeleted. Jim McBee - Blog - http://mostlyexchange.blogspot.com

Hi js_9180, Any updates?Frank Wang TechNet Community Support

It was in fact in a 'soft delete' state and running this command I was able to get rid of the left over mailbox: Remove-StoreMailbox -Database PREVIOUS DATABASE -Identity 'OLD MAILBOX' -MailboxState SoftDeleted