I have a ghostedExchange 2003 mailbox that is not connected to any user account and I am unable to purge it. When I right-click the mailbox in Exchange System Manager, the options to reconnect or purge is grayed out. I tried running the cleanup agent but the mailbox is still showing as activated. The mailbox shows up in the global address list, however when I preview the Default Global Address List in Exchange System Manager, the mailbox is not listed. If I send an email to the mailbox I get a delivery receipt. When I attempt exmerge the mailbox does not show up in the list of mailboxes. This problem wascaused when we attempted to detach the mailbox from one user and attach to another. Apparently, two admins were working the ticket at the same time and conflicted. I found one error in the application log about an ambiguius Exchange GUID but it's since been overwritten. Any ideas on how to: (1) Export the contents of the ghosted mailbox (2) Delete the mailbox

Have you run a backup? That may be keeping you from purging the mailbox. Also have you tried Exmerge.exe for removing the contacts? Also, you could try to re-attach to the mailbox by recreating the AD user account (NOT mail enabling it) then go into ESM and reconnect it.

Hi Larry,Have you run eseutil & ISINTEG yet? It may help repair broken attributes. I use this tool every 6 months to cleanup and repair exchange db. follow this article. http://www.msexchange.org/tutorials/Exchange-ISINTEG-ESEUTIL.html?printversion -john

I had the same problem. This is how I deleted the mailboxes: Go into ESM and highlight the mailbox store and click properties. Under the limits tab, make sure the "keep deleted items for (days)" is set to zero and the Keep deletedmailboxes for (days)" is set to zero. Uncheck the "Do not permanently delete mailboxes and items until the store has been backed up". You should be able to go back and right click the users mailbox and purge it from the store. You can go back and reset your deletion settings back to your previous settings. Good luck!