Hello,I need a way to recover deleted items all the way back to 1 year, but setting the deleted item retention to 365 days takes up too much physical space.Can you restore a mailbox to an RSG and access it's deleted item retention data from the point in time when the backup was taken?Server 2003 ENTExchange 2003 ENTBackup Exec 9.x (exchange agent)

Hi,While using ExMerge on RSG where you restored the mailbox database, select the option "Items from Dumpster" available in Data tab.Recovering deleted messages and mailboxes from backup mediahttp://searchexchange.techtarget.com/news/article/0,289142,sid43_gci969555,00.htmlBut keep in mind that the retention period set at the time of backup was taken, you can retrieve deleted message from dumpster for that time period only.Amit Tank | MVP - Exchange | MCITP:EMA MCSA:M | http://ExchangeShare.WordPress.com

Hi, If retention has been set 180 days, then we can recovery email backuped in these 180 days. Deletion retention is implemented with dumpsters. If the deleted item is still in retention period, we can try to recover it directly from the dumpster. Please follow the steps below: 1. Recovering an email from dumpster 1) Enable dumpster for all folders in Outlook (optional for Outlook 2007) a. Load Registry Editor on the client runs Outlook. b. Locate key [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Exchange\Client\Options]. c. Right click key Options and select New -> DWORD Value. d. Type DumpsterAlwaysOn as the name and set the data to 1. e. Exit Registry Editor. 2) Logon the mailbox with Outlook, navigate to the folder from which the email is permanently deleted. 3) Select Recover Deleted Items from menu Tools. 4) In the window pops up, select the email and recover it. 2. Recovering a mailbox from dumpster 1) Load Exchange System Manager, locate the mailbox store that hosts the deleted mailbox. 2) Navigate to container Mailboxes, the deleted mailbox should be listed on right pane with a red X. 3) Right click the mailbox and select Reconnect. 4) Select original owner of the mailbox, click OK. Note: If original owner has been deleted from AD, create a new account for the mailbox. 5) Logon the mailbox with Outlook and recover the email. Regards, Xiu

So to be clear.... If I restore a mailbox from backup tape to a RSG, I will be able to access the 30 day (default) dumpster for that mailbox from the time of backup? So I do not need to restore a whole storage group or database, I can simply restore the mailbox and access it's deleted items?

Ultimately, company policy requires that I be able to produce ALL email for a user dating back for an entire year... including deleted items. I would love to decrease our deleted item retention down from 365 days, but getting a years worth of deleted items without this seems difficult. It's starting to seem like I would need some type of 3rd party archiving solution to keep database size down.