Hi! We installed Exchange 2003 on a standalone server. After that we installed a A/P Exchange cluster. Since we got the cluster up and running fine, now we thought we should retire the first Exchange server and make it in to an FE server instead. The recommendations I have gotten so far is to completely remove the first Exchange server, then reinstall from scratch and make it an FE server. Well, I'm having trouble uninstalling it, it keeps giving me this error: "The component "Microsoft Exchange Messaging and Collaboration Services" cannot be assigned the action "Remove" because: - One or more users currently use a mailbox store on this server. These users must be moved to a mailbos store on a different server or be mail disabled before uinstalling this server. I have followed all the steps in KB822931, but still no luck. Verified with ADSI edit, and there are no mailboxes left, only the 3 system mailboxes, which you can't move. Anything else I should check that might hold me up from uninstalling it?? BIG TIA!!! / Perski

Well, since I couldn't find any solution to my problem, I went ahead and called in a PayPerIncident Support call. The support guy agreed to this being a "bug" so he reimbursed me the money, and we went ahead with KB833396 and deleted the Exchange server manually instead.Oh well... hope it won't come back and bite me later!?Thanks!/ Per

Hm, i faced the same problem today. Seems i found a workaround: I removed all mailbox stores from the server, the Setup let me uninstall Exchange Server.Regards,Fomar

Try this first before manually removing an Exchange 2003 Server installation if you find yourself "stuck" because of this error message -- it may actually be true dispite tha fact that it APPEARS that only system mailboxes remain in the store. If this is the case, you might avoid getting bitten by it later on. Open Active Directory Users & Computers on the Exchange 2003 server Right-click on Saved Queries (near the very top of the tree) and choose New > Query Name it Exchange Recipients Click Define Query Choose Find > Exchange Recipients (from the drop down list) and click OK twice Click the View menu and choose Add/Remove Columns Add Exchange Mailbox Store and click OK (the new column will be visible on the right side) Click on the column heading for Name twice Click on the column heading for Type twice Now that all User type accounts are listed alphabetically, look at the Exchange Recipient column for any user accounts with a mailbox on the server that you are trying to uninstall -- the server name will appear like this: CN=Mailbox Store (SERVERNAME),... Right click on each of these users and choose to either move or delete their mailbox Why does this work? My guess is that some user accounts end up having a mailbox on the server without actually having any mail, thus no mailbox appears for them in Exchange System Manager. Hope this helps! Jeremy Denegar NOVUS Consulting Inc.

The same is documented in KB http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/555147

That was actually not my problem, went through that, and it didn't apply in my case. Thanks though!

I have bumped into the same issue. I am able to move public folder to other server, and delete all information store from the server. (No store at all!) But uninstall still give me the same error message. I beleive this is a bug in Exchange 2003 Sp2!

Thanks Jeremy, worked perfectly! Bob Wawrzon

denegar wrote: My guess is that some user accountsend up havinga mailbox on the server without actually having any mail, thus no mailboxappears for them in Exchange System Manager. This is correct, a mailbox-enabled user account which has never received any messages would not yet have an instantiated mailbox created in the store, but Exchange would still see the user as owning a mailbox in that server.

that's correct

Here are the steps for resolving this issue: 1. Install Windows Support tools on your DC or Exchange server2.Open CMD and type csvde -f C:\ADUC.csv 3. Open ADUC.csv from C:\ in Excel. 4. Look for the following columns and check for any references to the old Exchange server: homeMDB or msExchHomeServerName5. Make a note of any accounts with these entries. 6. In AD remove the Exchange Attributes from the affected accounts. (Right click account in AD, select 'All Tasks' > 'Exchange Tasks' > 'Remove Exchange Attributes') 7. Uninstall Exchange Server

Here are the steps for resolving this issue: 1. Install Windows Support tools on your DC or Exchange server 2. Open CMD and type csvde -f C:\ADUC.csv 3. Open ADUC.csv from C:\ in Excel. 4. Look for the following columns and check for any references to the old Exchange server: homeMDB or msExchHomeServerName 5. Make a note of any accounts with these entries. 6. In AD remove the Exchange Attributes from the affected accounts. (Right click account in AD, select 'All Tasks' > 'Exchange Tasks' > 'Remove Exchange Attributes') 7. Uninstall Exchange Server This worked for me!! Had 2 users which had no mailbox attached to their account however exchange attributes still present pointing to the non-existent Ex2003 server. Removed exchange attributes from the 2 accounts and the uninstall worked. Thanks!