Recovery for Exchange Server

The effective way to find out if a Exchange Server email database is recoverable is to try the demo version of Recovery for Exchange Server on it. Visit the Demo page for a free copy of the demo.

Product specifications with lists of items recovered and not recovered is available at the Product Information page.

Note: Always backup your original corrupted Exchange Server email database before proceeding with any recovery activity!

If due to file damage an entire object (such as a folder) has been lost, the full version of Recovery for Exchange Server will not be able to recover it.

Evaluating the results of demo recovery can help in making the decision.

Details of current licensing scheme are described at the Licensing page.

If your license type is Enterprise or Service, you can run Recovery for Exchange Server from command line and use these calls in your batch files. Standard version does not support command line. The format for command line call is:

esr.exe <original filename with path> "<path to directory to store the recovered file(s)>"

Please note that the directory for recovered file(s) should be created before starting the recovery.

Command line mode supports patterns '*' (replaces group of symbols) and '?' (replaces one symbol).

The recovery procedure is a relatively time-consuming process, which depends strongly on the original email database corruption range, CPU power and RAM amount (1GB+ recommended). For big files it might take several hours or even days to proceed.

It is recommended to run the Recovery for Exchange Server in a logged mode. You can monitor the status of the process with the help of log file: if it is being updated constantly, the file is being processed. If, vice versa, there's no activity registered for more than 5-10 minutes, the software might be caught in loop. In this case, please, contact our support team for further instructions.

To create log file, please hold the SHIFT key while clicking the Recover button on the toolbar or selecting the Recover: item in the main menu. You can also press CTRL+SHIFT+R after launching the program.

The recovery results are stored in several different ways depending on the Exchange Server database type being recovered.

If the personal mailboxes are being recovered, Recovery for Exchange Server creates several folders, one per mail user, and stores the personal mail there in the standard .PST file.

If the recovered .PST file size exceeds the 1,5Gb limit it is being split into several independent .PST files named subsequently (e.g., admin.pst, admin1.pst, admin2.pst, etc.).

If the Exchange Server database with public folders is being recovered, Recovery for Exchange Server recreates in folder \M\ the whole database hierarchy folder structure. The recovered items from public folders are saved as standard .MSG files.

To import data from .PST files, use the free Exmerge utility by Microsoft:

• Some Questions and Answers About the Exmerge Utility
• Download Exchange Server Mailbox Merge Wizard (Exmerge)

To move data from 'M' folder to the Public Directory, do the following:

• Connect to any of the Exchange Server mailboxes using Microsoft Outlook
• After being connected, you get access to the public folders. Drug-and-drop items from 'M' folder into the appropriate public directory of the email database

Run Recovery for Exchange Server in a logged mode and contact our support team with detailed description of the problem and the log file.

To create log file, please hold the SHIFT key while clicking the Recover button on the toolbar of Recovery for Exchange Server or selecting the Recover: item in the main menu. You can also press CTRL+SHIFT+R after launching Recovery for Exchange Server.

To fix this problem you need to set temporary directory to the drive with free space available (2-3 times of the original email database size). Fix the Windows environment variable to use it. Do the following:

1. Open System in Control Panel.
2. On the Advanced tab, click Environment Variables, then click the name of the user variable (TEMP or TMP) you want to change.
3. Click Edit to change value.
4. Set path to the location where temporary data should be stored (e.g., e:\).
5. Restart computer for changes to take in effect.
6. Run the software again.

You can also use the special environment variable called OFFICERECOVERY_TMP to set the directory where Recovery for Exchange Server should store its temporary files. Use the method shown above to add/edit environment variable.