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How do I restore an Outlook rule from an Exchange Server 2003

How can we restore a users Outlook 2003 rule from an Exchange 2003 SP2 EDB file. The rule was deleted, but I have a backup of the EDB file from the day before the rule was deleted. I know the rules are stored in the Exchnage database, but I don't know how to view or extract them. Can ExMerge be used for this? If so, what options need to be chosen, and how would we view the rule?

Exchange_Admin

"Can ExMerge be used for this?"
Yes it can but I have found that it will corrupt all the inbox rules at times.
The rules (among other things like views) are extracted when the "ASSOCIATED MESSAGES" box is checked.

Personally it will probably be better to recreate this one rule rather than take a chance on corrupting all the rules.

GuruGary

ASKER

There are currently no other rules for this user, so corrupting the other rules would not be an issue. The reason we are trying to restore this rule is because we don't know exactly what the rule did, but we believe the rule was used to forward internal email outside the company. We want to examine the rule to see exactly what it did. The user deleted this as soon as he found it (which he did not create), and then notified us. The ESM "Message Tracking" shows a significant number of outgoing email from him to a particular external email address, but we don't see the emails in Sent or Deleted Items ... so we are still trying to figure this out.

If I want to use ExMerge, how do I tell it to use the .EDB file? And can I have it restore just the rule? Or if not just the rule, then can I have it restore from a backup .EDB to a .PST?

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Exchange_Admin

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GuruGary

ASKER

Sorry for the delay ... this dropped in priority and I never got a chance to try it. I'll assume the steps work fine and give the points. Thanks for the help!