The public folder on my exchange 2003 server is at 18Gb and want to reduce it down to 2GB. I used outlook 2011 to archive those data into my local hard drive. I used the MOVE command to transfer those data to the ost file that I created on the local drive. When finished, the exchange server still showed the same amount. I dismounted the public folder and ran the defrag command thinking it will reduced the database afterward. The server still have the same amount like before (18Gb) but if I check the properties of the public folder, it showed only 2Gb. Before outlook 2011, I used oultook xp/2000 to do this task and it worked like a charm. Please let me know if anything I can do to reduce the database on the server down to the same amount as the properties of the public folder shown. thanks in advance

Your public folder database probably has a lot of white space. In the event viewer on your Exchange server, look for event ID 1121, this should show you how much free space is in the database. If you would like to recover this as free disk space, you would need to dismount the database, and use eseutil.exe /d to perform an offline defrag. JoeJoseph M. Durnal MCITP: Enterprise Messaging Administrator

Hello, In addition to Joseph, You can check when to use ESEUTILS and MS KB 328804 article. Thanks.