I have two VM's each with a DC and Exchange 2010, Lets call them server1 and server2 with exchange1 and exchange2 exchange1 automatically created a mailbox copy on exchange2 Then the VM of exchange2 was removed (it was a testbox) and deleted by accident. Now I am stuck with a VM with a DC and exchange 2010 SP1 where I have constant speed trouble apparently because the exchange2 server is still in the system. What is the best way to remove it? I have tried all commands to remove mailbox and server2 etc but it all errors out. OF course with understandable errors like "server inaccesable" etc but still there must be a way to remove it. Any help appreciated. Bastiaan

That server is orphaned in AD because it was not gracefully uninstalled. The only supported way to remove it is to bring it back "alive" by restoring the Exchange server then uninstalling it. Otherwise you have to use adsiedit to remove the Exchange server instance.James Chong MCITP | EA | EMA; MCSE | M+, S+ Security+, Project+, ITIL msexchangetips.blogspot.com

Detailed information, please see: Recover an Exchange Server http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd876880.aspx Frank Wang TechNet Subscriber Support in forum If you have any feedback on our support, please contact tngfb@microsoft.com Please remember to click Mark as Answer on the post that helps you, and to click Unmark as Answer if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.

If I move the mailbox (using the still active Exchange1 server) to a new setup , will it also 'move' the troubles / copies over? Recovering an exchange server seems a time consuming hobby. (I have only three mailboxes on this test server)

Frank, please stop marking other peoples threads as answered! I am still struggling with the setup and certainly did not find the right solution yet. Every suggestion so far fails but I have no time now to write it here. (yet). Bastiaan

Hard deleting orphaned servers is a commonly run task because some admins do not want to perfom a restore in order to gracefully decom it. No it won't carry over the troubles as long as you rehome all services off that box to the new server, and do some housekeeping ie. clean up DNS etc.James Chong MCITP | EA | EMA; MCSE | M+, S+ Security+, Project+, ITIL msexchangetips.blogspot.com