Hello All, We have certain users who maintain very large mailboxes. Now if a server on which the user's mailbox resides is running out of disk space, I will like to move it to another server which does have disk space. if I use the standard mailbox move feature of exchange, it leads to a large downtime for the mailbox (while it is getting moved to another server). Is there a more efficient way of moving mailboxes which leads to minimum downtime for the end-user?

Hi,What version of Exchange you are running. If it is not Exchange 2010, during mailbox move user will not be able to access the mailbox during movement.Can't you schedule it for non-business hours? Schedule In Exchange 2003, you can schedule mailbox moves to start at a certain time of the day (for example, during hours when users are logged off or the network is not as busy). Additionally, you can set the finish time so that the Move Mailbox task also stops on schedule. For example, you can configure to Exchange 2003 to move <var>x</var> number of mailboxes from 22:00 to 03:00 only.If there are mailboxes that are being actively moved when the finish time arrives, all their messages are moved back to the source server, and the mailbox on the destination server is deleted. Essentially, the Move Mailbox operation for those mailboxes is rolled back instead of being completed. Any mailboxes that were moved before the finish time remain moved. Any mailboxes that were not moved before the finish time must be rescheduled and moved manually because the finish time includes time of the day and the date. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/822892http://www.msexchange.org/articles_tutorials/exchange-server-2007/management-administration/moving-mailboxes-exchange-2007-part1.htmlIf it is Exchange 2010, then user can access mailbox even when you are moving it.http://www.exchangeinbox.com/article.aspx?i=142Apart from this, the options I can think of is export the mailbox to a PST and give it to the user by creating a new mailbox. or you can import it to a mailbox on the new server, I am not sure (right now) of What exact steps you will have to take.Still, mailbox move looks pretty easy and straighforward if it is possible for you?-V

Some thoughts: (and you didn't say what version of Exchange you're using)1. Exchange 2010 supports online mailbox moves, so that might be a good reason to upgrade. :)2. Run the standard mailbox move commands on the target server and not, say, a workstation, as the data will travel through the workstation otherwise. This may speed things up a bit.3. Get people to prune their mailbox sizes or implement an archiving system.4. Take a look at your servers and try to find out why you're running out of disk space so often. Is there a case for additional hardware?Neil Hobson, Exchange MVP