Recover and restore a mailbox from Exchange Server 2010
Updated On - February 23, 2024
The mail server that most businesses use today is the Exchange Server. It provides a variety of security features that empowers the business to conduct safe communication. But, several issues and errors come up in the Exchange routinely, and you should be aware of them. Here are some error messages that you will see in your Exchange account quite often:
- Exchange Server is in the inconsistent stage
- Exchange Server is unavailable
- Mail flow related issues in Exchange Server
- Exchange database (EDB) file corruption
- Create a recovery database for Exchange Server 2010.
- Restore the database from Windows Server Backup.
- Bring the database to a clean shutdown state using ESEUTIL.
- Recover the mailbox from the recovery database.
- To create the recovery database, start the Exchange Management Shell, and use the New-MailboxDatabase command.
- Launch Windows Server Backup, go to Actions and click Recovery option.
- Select the location of the backup and click Next option.
- Select the date/time of the backup and click Next.
- Choose the option ‘Applications’ to restore the Exchange Server 2010 mailbox and click Next.
- Select Exchange as the application to recover and click Next.
- Choose the option ‘Recover to another location’ and browse a location to save the recovered mailbox items. Then click Next.
- At the Confirmation page, review your selection and finally, click Recover button.
- After successful completion of recovery, click Close button to cancel the Windows Server Backup wizard. You can go and check the newly created recovered folder at the location which you had selected earlier.
- Install the software and run it. Then click on Add Source icon.
- Select the option ‘Offline EDB file.’
- Browse the EDB file from its saving folder, or you can also search it from a drive or folder.
- There are two scan modes which you can choose for the EDB file – Standard Scan and Deep Scan. Choose any one and click Next.
- The tool scans the file and recovers the inaccessible and deleted data. Click Finish.
- Go to the Source List, where the recovered data is present. You can check any folder and get the preview of its data. Then click on Add destination icon.
- Select ‘Create New PST file’ > click Next.
- Provide a saving location and name to the PST file. You can also choose to password-protect the PST file. Then click Next.
- The tool adds the PST file as the destination. Click Finish.
- Select the messages > right-click them > click Copy Message(s).
- Now, go to the destination pane > right-click, > select ‘Paste Message.’
- After migrating the data, the tool will show a report depicting the status of each message.
- The data is moved to the destination PST file.
When you update the Exchange Server and do not delete the files of the previous versions entirely, then you will have to face such an error. The older files have an active connection, and they are stopping the new Exchange Server from working.
This error occurs when Outlook fails to connect with Exchange Server. There can be several reasons behind the error like a corrupt PST file, a corrupt Exchange database, an improper configuration, bad Internet connection, etc. In case of a corrupt PST file, you can go for the Scan PST tool; and for a corrupt Exchange Database, you can go and use the ESEUTIL tool.
Mail flow related issues stop the Exchange account from receiving and sending emails. Generally, it occurs due to corruption in Exchange database files or incorrect DNS configuration. You can run several troubleshooting methods to overcome the problem.
Exchange database file is the core of all Exchange operations. It consists of mailboxes of multiple users and their entire data. All the communication stores or retrieves the data from the EDB file, and corruption in it will bring much bad news to you. So, we need to rectify the corruption using either the ESEUTIL or ISINTEG tools that work on Exchange commands.
How to deal with data loss situations in Exchange 2010?
Whenever there is a data loss situation, the Exchange administrator has to resolve it as soon as possible and let the user access their mailbox smoothly. For Exchange Server 2010, there is a recovery and restore procedure where the deleted database mailbox(es) are restored in the database using the Windows Server Backup tool by which these files will come back to the exact place where it was saved.
The recovery procedure includes several stages which the administrator should follow-
1. Create a recovery database for Exchange Server 2010
New-MailboxDatabase -Recovery -Name RecoveryNDR -Server NDRWEB -EdbFilePath C:\test\RecoveryNDR.edb -LogFilePath C:\test\logs
2. Use Windows Server Backup to restore the database
Using the Windows Server Backup, you can restore the backup of the database at a safe location.
3. Bring the database to clean shutdown state
When you restore the database from the backup, then it remains in the Dirty Shutdown state. You need to change the status to a clean shutdown state by using the ESEUTIL tool.
First, check the state of the database.
eseutil /mh ‘C:\test\Exchange\NDRWEB\RecoveryNDR.edb’
Here, you check the state, if it shows ‘Dirty Shutdown,’ then you need to restore it. Read more about: How to fix Exchange Database Dirty Shutdown Error
eseutil /r NDRWEB /i /d ‘D:\test\recovery\RecoveryNDR.edb’
After restoring the database, you can mount the database back and recover the mailbox from the database.
Mount-Database RecoveryNDR
4. Recover database mailbox items from the recovery database
After mounting the database, its time to recover the mailbox.
Run the command to get the mailbox in the database.
Get-MailboxStatistics -Database RecoveryNDR
Use the following command to restore the mailbox, including its folders and sub-folders.
Restore-Mailbox -Identity “Peter” -RecoveryDatabase RecoveryNDR -RecoveryMailbox “Peter” -TargetFolder Restore
At last, you can see the deleted mailbox in the database once again.
Exchange 2010 Mailboxes without Recovery Database
The manual method which we mentioned above is quite long, and you need to follow several steps to recover the mailbox data. But it requires a backup file, and you also need to create a Recovery Database. If you have no backup, then the above method will not be helpful to you. So you can use Recoveryfix for Exchange Server Recovery, which is a secure data recovery software. It requires only the EDB file for the recovery, and it can even retrieve the deleted items, that too without a Recovery database. Following is the whole procedure –
Conclusion
Recoveryfix for Exchange Server removes all the complications related to Exchange Server 2010 mailbox recovery and presents you a smooth, optimal, and secure method for the recovery. The deleted items are also recovered and presented in colour red for easy identification.
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