I'm running Exchange 2007 on Windows Server 2008. I'm working on getting my clients to reduce the size of their mailbox. I can see what each user has in GB and total number of items. When I backup Microsoft Information Store with Symantec Backup Exec, it is backing up 41 GB total. My user's mailboxes only total up to 36GB.What other things are being included in this backup that would make it 5GB more? Does the Public Folder contain that much data? If so, where can I see the size of my Public Folders? Also when it shows the number of items in a users mailbox, does that include their Deleted folder or is it showing absolutely everything in their outlook.

It's database overhead and whitespace. See here about overhead: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/812232The article is written for 2000, but applies to all versions actually. White space is space allocated by the physical database file consisting of currently unused pages. White space gets created after an item gets deleted, when online maintainance frees the space consumed. This space is reused by the store, and is backed up.-aseigler

The size of an EDB file = Users' actual data + Deleted items/mailboxes + Recyclable space (event id 1221). As a rule of thumb deleted item / mailbox retention account for 20 % of the space used. In your case that would be: 36 GB + 7.2 GB = 42.2 GB. The article below is for Exchange 2003, but gives a good idea. With Exchange 2007 there is no .STM database anymore.Understanding Exchange Databases Disk Consumptionhttp://www.msexchange.org/articles/Exchange-Databases-Disk-Consumption.html If you want to reduce the size of your database, use Move-Mailbox:Exchange 2007 Physical edb database size too large reduce size move mailbox offline defraghttp://exchangeshell.wordpress.com/2009/11/03/exchange-2007-physical-edb-database-size-too-large-reduce-size-move-mailbox-offline-defrag/MCTS: Messaging | MCSE: S+M | Small Business Specialist

Thank you, this helps a lot!

Thanks, I appreciate the help!