Good afternoon, I really need some help. My exchange server went down Wednesday night due to a bad RAID controller card. We installed a new card and now have the Exchange server back up and running. However, one of our Storage Groups is dismounted. It will not let me mount the data the database. I have four mailboxes associated in that Storage Group. How can I move these mailboxes to another storage group and gain access to them? Since the database is down, it won't simply just let me "move the mailbox". Please help ASAP! I am really catching overhead on this and can't solve it.

You didn't say what version of Exchange you were using but use Lucid8's DigiScope (supports Exchange 2010, 2007, 2003, 2000 and 5.5.) http://www.lucid8.com/product/digiscope.asp to open the offline databases and move the data into the new exchange server after starting up new dial tone databases so that your users can start working now and then use DigiScope to backfill the data in the live store. If you want additional details call our support line and they will be happy to assist Troy Werelius Lucid8

We are running Exchange 2007. I assume I would run DigiScope on the Exchange Server? That will allow me to open any mailbox? I may need help doing that.

Whats the exact error message when you try to mount the stores?

Here is the error -------------------------------------------------------- Microsoft Exchange Error -------------------------------------------------------- Failed to mount database 'Sales2'. Sales2 Failed Error: Exchange is unable to mount the database that you specified. Specified database: 8b43cdeb-d344-4bf4-812e-c1fb10472272; Error code: MapiExceptionJetErrorReadVerifyFailure: Unable to mount database. (hr=0x80004005, ec=-1018) . -------------------------------------------------------- OK --------------------------------------------------------

Do you have a good backup you can restore? -1018 not good.

You can run DigiScope (DS) on the Exchange server but you don't have to i.e. you can run DS on as little as an XP or Windows 7 box and in your case I would run it on a different machine- see why below. Andy is right -1018 is a bad deal but its not impossible to get data out of the existing database depending of course on the severity of the damage. I would make a copy and let DigiScope take a peak to see what can be recovered with DS. If required DigiScope will tell you he database is damaged and will run the repair against the database as well. Knowing that this is a -1018 issue I would however recommend that you use DigiScope to open the copy of the EDB's on a box that is NOT your exchange server and the reason I say this is that if you have not completely solved the issue that caused the -1018 in the first place this could cause additional heavy I/O stress on your disk subsystem if you have to do a repair which you want avoid until you are absolutely sure its resolved. Backups also cause a heavy I/O load during backup and recovery which is going to stress your disk systems so depending on when this issue started I would bet your backups have damaged databases as well ( but hey if you can't get what you need out of the copies you have then yes you should see what you can get from backup and again DS can help you open the EDBs to see whats recoverable. That said I would A: look close at my event logs during the times your backups normally ran prior to the crash to see what occurred and B: keep an eye on the event logs during future backup and recovery actions to see if any additional errors occur, My concern here would be was it all caused by the controller or is there something else lurking to damage your databases again and then of course if so you need to correct it immediately OR if you cant figure it out move to a different Exchange server ASAP. Troy Werelius www.lucid8.com

On Fri, 1 Oct 2010 23:12:10 +0000, exchngadmin wrote: > > >Here is the error > > > >-------------------------------------------------------- Microsoft Exchange Error -------------------------------------------------------- Failed to mount database 'Sales2'. Sales2 Failed Error: Exchange is unable to mount the database that you specified. Specified database: 8b43cdeb-d344-4bf4-812e-c1fb10472272; Error code: MapiExceptionJetErrorReadVerifyFailure: Unable to mount database. (hr=0x80004005, ec=-1018) -------------------------------------------------------- OK -------------------------------------------------------- That -1018 error says there's a "torn page" in the database. The checksum written in the database header doesn't match the checksum calculated from the contents of the page. The only safe way to deal with this is to restore the database(s) and let the log files replay to bring the database(s) back to the state it was in when your machine took a dive. The alternative to a restore is to try(!) a repair of the database (eseuitl /p). That may result in a mountable, but possibly empty, database or a database in which some (or lots) of data are missing. If you do opt for a repair you'll have to run "eseutil /d" afterwards, and then "isinteg -fix" at least twice. Then make a backup, pronto. After that you should move the mailboxes to another databse and delete the one you repaired. You really don't want a repaired database in active use for more than the absolute minimum amount of time it takes to get rid of it. --- Rich Matheisen MCSE+I, Exchange MVP --- Rich Matheisen MCSE+I, Exchange MVP

Thank you all for the advice. It's definitely giving direction. Rick - As for doing a restore versus a repair on the DB, I am assuming I cannot restore without a backup huh? Unfortunately, we only have backups of our AD (Active Directory) and System State. Would I run the repair from the snap-in Exchange management console? The biggest concern is getting emails from this week plus our contacts. Granted, we do have ACT!, so that stores most of our contacts. Troy - Would DS allow me to view and extract items from the Inbox, subfolders and all? Does it allow me to save those items and then import them into a new mailbox/OST file? When you say make a copy, can I just share the folder(s) across the network and run DS on the EDB that way? And yes, I know, not having a backup of the mail store(s) is a very, very bad idea. This would all be thanks to our previous IT SE. Granted, I have been in control of this for a few months, but what can I say.

On Sat, 2 Oct 2010 02:41:14 +0000, exchngadmin wrote: >Thank you all for the advice. It's definitely giving direction. > >Rick - As for doing a restore versus a repair on the DB, I am assuming I cannot restore without a backup huh? Not unless you have some sort of magic trick you can use. :-) >Unfortunately, we only have backups of our AD (Active Directory) and System State. Well, that kinda limits your options, doesn't it? >Would I run the repair from the snap-in Exchange management console? No, you run it from the command like. Eseutil is in the Exchange server directory in a sub-folder named "bin". >The biggest concern is getting emails from this week plus our contacts. Granted, we do have ACT!, so that stores most of our contacts. Before you do anything, get a flat-file copy of everything associtated with that database. At least you'll be able to return to a damaged, but perhaps somewhat salvagable by other means, database. >Troy - Would DS allow me to view and extract items from the Inbox, subfolders and all? Does it allow me to save those items and then import them into a new mailbox/OST file? When you say make a copy, can I just share the folder(s) across the network and run DS on the EDB that way? > >And yes, I know, not having a backup of the mail store(s) is a very, very bad idea. This would all be thanks to our previous IT SE. Granted, I have been in control of this for a few months, but what can I say. You can't lay this off on someone else. If you haven't made a backup in the last week then you can't meet even your own requirement of getting your mail back for this week. Out of curiosity, whay have you been doing with the log files that have been accumulating while no backups are being made? I'm pretty sure you're going to say that you're using circular logging. If that's the case the only way you'd be able to restore a database would be if you made a full backup every day, and even then you'd only be able to recover up to the time at which you made the backup. --- Rich Matheisen MCSE+I, Exchange MVP --- Rich Matheisen MCSE+I, Exchange MVP

Yes DS will allow you to open the EDB and see all mailboxes and items. From there you can either export to PST, MSG & XML OR just copy the items directly back into the production server, i.e. no need to do an export to PST and then import to production server just do it in one step. You could share it across the network but I wouldn't recommend it. The reason I say make a copy is three fold. A. you don't want to have a potential problem with your exchange server inflict more damage onto this database. Like I said above hopefully the raid controller was the issue but I would play it safe. B: you are always better to be closer to the data, i.e. running across the network is going to be much slower and C: from a best practice standpoint you never want to do a repair or take action against the ONLY copy of your database so regardless of where you work on it, make sure you have a copy (on another system preferably) in case something goes wrong then you can roll back to the starting point Rich is 100% correct as well in that if you plan to put the damaged EDB back into production I would only do it long enough to move the data to a different database. Troy Werelius www.lucid8.com

Troy - Well, I kind of jumped the gun. I am working remotely and have to have something in place by Monday morning. So, I had to work fast. I shared it via VPN to my home PC and hope DigiScope will do the trick. You are right though, tremendously slow. It's a 48GB file, so I didn't except much. I did make a copy and will be saving it to an external HDD just in case. I'll let you know the outcome. However, DS did read that the file was Dirty and is performing a "soft recovery". Does Exchange not store single OST files anywhere on the drives or are they all embedded in the EDB files?

.OST files are an Outlook thing. They are the cached file of the individual mailboxes for those clients running in Outlook cache mode and are on the workstations, not the server.

Sorry about the delayed response, I am not getting any notifications when you post to this for some reason. Anyway are you saying that you are running DS on a machine at home and then connecting over a VPN to the Exchange server where the EDB is located? If thats what you are doing its going to be glacial i.e. like sucking peanut butter through a straw! If thats the case then you would be better to stop what you are doing connect remotely to the Exchange Server or other machine that is on the local network, install DS and start over. Now if I misunderstood and you used your VPN connection to remote into the Exchange server or a box on the local network and installed DS there you should be fine. BTW if you need support on DigiScope our guys will help you even though you are not yet a customer, just use you logo and password you received when you signed up http://www.lucid8.com/support/request_support.asp Also if you want to chat with me directy you can send an email to troyw at Lucid8 dot com Troy Werelius www.lucid8.com

Tony- I am connected via a VPN to my local domain and accessing my Exchange Server remotely. I am getting the error though about missing DLL files and am on a 32-bit OS. My Exchange though is on a 64-bit. I may contact the tech support. Are they 24x7?

Ok thanks for the clarification I am assuming that you are getting this error http://www.lucid8.com/download/documentation/DSWebHelp/DigiScopeHelp.htm so you can follow the instructions to attemtp use of the 32 bit DLL's or switch to a 64 bit machine. If the above is not the error you are seeing pleaswe advise Yes you can open a support ticket online http://www.lucid8.com/support/request_support.asp and they will assist ASAP. No they are not 24x7 but there is an engineer on call and they are pretty responsive