Hi there I currently have 2 exchange 2003 servers running in my organization and have just deployed an exchange 2010 server which is currently sitting empty. I used to use exmerge to archive pst files but noticed corruption when archiving pst that were over 2GB. I was wanting to use the new tools in exchange 2010 to archive mailboxes on my exchange 2003 servers but i am not sure how to go about it. What commands to i run and can i run then on my exchange 2010 server or do i have to run them from exchange 2003 server. Any help would be greatly appreciated

Hi, Why not you migrate your mailboxes to 2010 and then try.Sachin Hodge MCP--Exchange 2003,MSTS--Exchange 2007

I wouldn't expect the Exchange 2010 tools to work with an Exchange 2003 database. Your best option would be to move all the mailboxes to Exchange 2010, then export from there. Then you could drop the database and create a new one fresh. What you are seeing with exmerge is not corruption - it is simply that the version of the PST file that exmerge supports cannot create PST files more than 2gb in size. You would usually have to create multiple PST files that stay under that level. However, do be aware that due to the bloat in PST files, 100mb of email in Exchange can be over 300mb of email in a PST file. If you want to keep the email then your best option would be to store it in Exchange, which is a lot more efficient and can be backed up. With the archive mailbox feature of Exchange 2010 you can store the archive content in a separate database. PST files are not an archiving solution. If you value the email then you will not store it in a PST file. If this is a simple migration between two servers (it isn't clear) then you don't use PST files to migrate. Simon.Simon Butler, Exchange MVP. http://blog.sembee.co.uk , http://exbpa.com/

Simon, is correct on all counts, i.e. ExMerge only supports ANSI PST files which have a 2GB limit and unfortunately they don't warn you when you reach that limit, instead you find out later when you attempt to open the PST file and find its corrupted If you are migrating from 2003 to 2010 best to check out the MS process first http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd638187.aspx If for some reason you just want to archive the 2003 data to PST OR you desire to move to 2010 by an alternate method check out Lucid8's DigiScope http://www.lucid8.com/product/digiscope.asp since it can export from all version of Exchange to Unicode PST which was a 20GB limit and can also do cross version and cross domain data migrations from offline EDB to Production Exchange Servers. Troy Werelius Lucid8

Hi Thanks for replying our migration ex2003 to 2010 is a seperate project. Our archiving is for when a member of staff leaves, we have to archive there mailbox just incase someone would need access to it at a later date. Currently we use exmerge but as you stated the pst limit has left us with corrupted files so am looking for a better alternative which is free.

I see, well; I would migrate the accounts to 2010 first and be sure to install SP1 since it has fixes for import/export Then use the export functionality in 2010 since it supports Unicode as well If thats not possible then the only other option would be to either break up the exports using ExMerge, i.e. watch the file size and then exclude certain folders and then run the export again excluding all other folders but thats allot of overhead Other thing you could do is export at the Outlook client level since Outlook 2003 and above have the option of exporting to Unicode PSTs Troy Werelius Lucid8

Hi - in that case I think you're better off using Outlook, then. Quest's Recovery Manager for Exchange can do a nice job with PST file creation directly from the store, and there are also other products out there, but they aren't free. Lanwench [MVP - Exchange] ** Do not fold, spindle or mutilate. Fill in the box completely and erase any stray marks. Use only a #2 pencil.

Hi - in that case I think you're better off using Outlook, then. Quest's Recovery Manager for Exchange can do a nice job with PST file creation directly from the store, and there are also other products out there, but they aren't free. Lanwench [MVP - Exchange] ** Do not fold, spindle or mutilate. Fill in the box completely and erase any stray marks. Use only a #2 pencil.

Thanks for all your help, i didn't realise there were differnt versions of pst files, will just use outlook just now to export until everyone is migrated over to exchange 2010

Hi Tony, You might also want to check out the script here which still uses EXMerge but can span to multiple PST's. http://gsexdev.blogspot.com/2007/01/exporting-mailbox-larger-then-2-gb-and.html Cheers Neill

Nice post Neil, I didn't realize there was such a script out there, but nice to know. Troy

Hi Tony, You cannot use Exchange 2010 cmdlet against Exchange 2003 mailbox, eg: Export-Mailbox Management Tool Interoperability http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2010/01/08/453722.aspx Maybe you have to resort to ExMerge or Outlook to archive mailboxes.Frank Wang