Is there a way to restore the "Recoverable Items" folder from an RDB to a target folder in a recovery mailbox? I'm able to restore the mailbox content, but the dumpster data does not appear anywhere. Is this possible?

I think your best option may be to export it to PST and then bring in the recoverable items folder post export http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff607299.aspx becuase I dont see an a command to ONLY include the dumpster, just one to exclude. Although you might find something here that can help http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee364754.aspx I see for th4e Searchmailbox command there is a -SearchDumpsterOnly option so maybe that will help.Troy Werelius www.Lucid8.com

Thanks Troy. I thought about that option, but I haven't found a way to export the data from the recovery database. I can only restore the mailbox to another mailbox. But when I restore it to a target folder in another mailbox, the dumpster is missing. Any other suggestions? I guess I could create a new mailbox, and restore the mailbox into that mailbox, and then export to PST, then import back into the target folder in the discovery mailbox, but that seems a bit convoluted... I'm testing that right now, but it seems like there should be an easier way...

Well the recoverable items folder is a system folder so that would make sense that it would work going into a NEW mailbox since it would just place the items into the NEW mailboxes recoverable items folder. I don't know of a command line way to do this other then the hokey poky, export to PST turn around copy to mailbox sub folder method you describe. If you want to copy items directly from the recoverable Items folder to an online sub folder you could check out our DigiScope product http://www.lucid8.com/product/digiscope.asp which will allow you to open and OFFLINE database (EDB and Logs) so that you can browse, search, export, or recover specific data to the same or alternate mailbox on any Exchange server. With DS you can open the mailbox and then expand the system mailbox for that user and you will then see the recoverable items folder with all the desired items. From there you can simple D&D the items to the desired location. You can download the product and get a 30 day DEMO license which will let you open any database, but alas to export or recover items you need to purchase a license :-( NOTE: version 4.0 is under development to allow you to do on the fly recovery of the Recoverable items folder to alternate sub folders as well as many other new upgrades but for now you would need to Drag-n-Drop the data to the desired alternate folder location or to just create a sub folder called Recovered Dumpster Items in the target mailbox etc. I will keep thinking about this to see if I can come up with an easier way to do via the native MS tools and let me know if you figure out an easier way as well so that I can share with others in the future.Troy Werelius www.Lucid8.com

Well I tested the convoluted way and it appears that you can't restore the full mailbox without overwriting the existing mailbox. Which isn't an option for discovery scenarios. Is there really no other way besides third-party products to extract the full mailbox from a recovery database? I'm assuming the data is there... Thanks again!

Nothing that I know of, sorry :-(Troy Werelius www.Lucid8.com