I recently had to reinstall SBS 2003 Premium R2. Prior to that, I backed up Exchange & other areas. Currently have Exchange 2003 R2. I've placed the backup databaseinto the Recovery Storage Group and successfully mounted the database. Upon trying to use the Exchange Task to Recover Mailbox Data from Exchange System Manager, the process fails with the following: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="unicode"?><taskWizardRun taskName='Recover Mailbox Data' dcName='DATASOLSERVER' buildNumber='7638' runningAs='Administrator@MASTERGROUP.LOCAL' ><timespan startTime='2008-09-02 09:35:33.006' milliseconds='94' /><recoverMailbox><destination><database>/dc=local/dc=datasolgroup/cn=Configuration/cn=Services/cn=Microsoft Exchange/cn=MASTERGROUP/cn=Administrative Groups/cn=first administrative group/cn=Servers/cn=MASTERSERVER/cn=InformationStore/cn=First Storage Group/cn=Mailbox Store (MASTERSERVER)</database></destination></recoverMailbox><taskSummary errorCount='1' completedCount='0' warningCount='0' errorCode='0x00000000'></taskSummary><items><item adsPath='Administrator' class='user'><progress code='0' milliseconds='94'>Connecting to source server.</progress><summary isWarning='false' errorCode='0xc1050000'>The attempt to log on to the Microsoft Exchange Server computer has failed.The MAPI provider failed.Microsoft Exchange Server Information StoreID no: 8004011d-0512-00000000</summary></item></items></taskWizardRun> In the Event Logs, there are 3 errors: 9175 (The MAPI call 'OpenMsgStore' failed with the following error: The attempt to log on to the Microsoft Exchange Server computer has failed.The MAPI provider failed.) 9167 (Unable to get an administrative interface to the mailbox store on server 'MASTERSERVER'. Error: The attempt to log on to the Microsoft Exchange Server computer has failed.The MAPI provider failed.) 1041 (Error: The attempt to log on to the Microsoft Exchange Server computer has failed.The MAPI provider failed.Microsoft Exchange Server Information Store) Information store is started, the main storage group is mounted. The administrator has Exchange Full Administrative rights. What am I missing? thanx, Allen

Allen, How did you restore the "real" database? From backup? Or did you create a new, empty database? Does this blog entry sound like it might solve your problem? http://telnetport25.wordpress.com/2007/08/09/using-recovery-storage-groups-where-the-primary-mailbox-has-been-purged-from-the-store/ Jim

After reinstalling SBS, 3 users were re-created manually, which lead toa new exchange database being created. I then mounted a restored backup database in a Recovery Storage Group to do the merge back of these 3 user mailboxesto the new database. I went over the document you sent and I don't believe it addresses my issue ("The attempt to log on to the Microsoft Exchange Server computer has failed.") as the users exist in the First Storage Group and have email activity since the restore. A while back, after a previous restore (had 2 separate recentdisc failures plus an array failure),I was talking with a MS Support fellow about the fact that the new users would have a different msExchangeMailBoxGUID and he stated it didn't matter. Then he went on to merge the backup mailboxes with the new ones. But the errors I experienced didn't show up during his session. I suppose I could delete them after having the usersmove their current emails to an offline pst file and then follow the guide, but it seemed so easy when the MS fellow did it. I just don't understand the error. Allen

Yes, new created mailbox even has same AD user account, but mailbox ID is different from the original one, so we cannot just straightly recover mailboxes from recovery storage group How to Recover a Purged Mailbox from an Online Backup Using the Original Database Server has described this kind of situation

The thought hit me that I could just change the GUID for the existing members to the old ID, as stated in the ExMerge log. However, that information is not to be found in the same way as described in the article. Also, does ExMerge also copy back the contacts lists? Allen

You mean the items in contacts folder? yes. In Exmerge window, User messages and folders is selected by default, lets you extract all types of messages from the source store. This includes normal mail messages, contacts, appointments, tasks, notes, and journal items. Generally, any item that is visible using Outlook, will be extracted if this option is selected

Hi, Allen, I assume the question has been answered, and I'd like to change the status to "Marked as answer", please feel free to post here if you have any update