I am curious if I archive email from a users mailbox is that white space instantly reclaimed after my online defrag runs? Or is that email considered "deleted" and not cleared out until it hits my deleted item retention period? This is for Exchange 2003 Standard SP2

The email still exisits in the db if the delete item retention period has not expired.

The email still exisits in the db if the delete item retention period has not expired. I thought deleted item retention only effects hard deletes and items put in the deleted items folder. Archiving to PST is considered a "hard delete" ???

Hi, If the message is copied to a personal folder file (.pst) instead of to an Exchange Server mailbox, the message is actually deleted from the Inbox folder after the message is copied to the local .pst file, instead of being moved to the Deleted Items folder. Understanding Deleted Item Retention and Message Deletion Process http://support.microsoft.com/kb/249680 Xiu

Hi DamadHatter, To answer your original question re white space... When you delete an email/mailbox from the database via any method it leaves white space. As the database grows again it shall use that white space. This white space is NOT automatically reclaimed by online defrags and so that database size does not become smaller. Rather to make the database smaller you need to perform an offline database defrag... eseutil /d Database_Name [options] http://support.microsoft.com/kb/328804 Be sure to have enough disk space when you start the process as it creates a whole new copy of the database and moves data from the old to the new. Kind Regards GF

Until your rentension period hasnt passed it will still be in the edb. If you want to reduce the actual physical size then I'd prefer to create a new database and move mailboxes across, or you can do a offline defrag. You may have limitations as your using exch 2003 std so the number of SG/DB will be limited. May have to get another exch server for the new db, or if it's not worth the time then you can think about moving to a newer version, i.e exch 2010 Sukh