Backup
and Recovery: Using
ExMerge to Extract Mail from a
Corrupted Mailbox Store
Posted: May 08, 2002
If a mailbox store becomes corrupted,
you can use the Exchange 2000 Server Mailbox
Merge (ExMerge.exe) tool to recover all uncorrupted
data. If you can start the
Information Store service, you can run ExMerge.exe
against the corrupted mailbox store.
ExMerge copies and transfers uncorrupted data
for all users on the corrupted mailbox
store to personal folder (.pst) files. After you
run ExMerge, you can reset the Information
Store service and then import the .pst files into
an undamaged mailbox store.
ExMerge uses a process that helps you recover
all uncorrupted data even if individual
mailbox folders contain corrupted messages. Usually,
ExMerge extracts all messages in a
mailbox folder collectively to minimize remote
procedure call (RPC) traffic. However, if
a particular message causes an error, ExMerge
automatically skips that message and then
begins individually copying the messages that
remain in the folder. While copying
messages individually does increase network traffic,
it also allows the tool to bypass the
corrupted data. After ExMerge finishes copying
each message individually in the mailbox
folder containing the corrupted message, the tool
then resumes copying messages
collectively in other mailbox folders until another
error occurs.
The ExMerge tool and its documentation are available
on the Exchange 2000 compact
disc in the following folder: SUPPORT\UTILS\I386\EXMERGE.
This tip is provided by the Microsoft Exchange
User Education team.
For additional information, see the Microsoft
TechNet Exchange Web site.
