Reduce Exchange mailbox size

Deleted items are actually stored for an additional set amount of time based on the "Deleted Item Retention" setting on your server.  This is a very handy tool for most people because it allows users to go back and get messages they accidently deleted.

Please see http://support.microsoft.com/kb/249680 for a better understanding of this process.

Jeff
TechSoEasy

I've set the deleted item detention to 2 days and then I started the Mailbox Management Process but still he has 2139 items in his mailbox???

Well, how many calendar items are there?  (such as holidays?)  how many contacts?  Mailboxes do not just contain email messages, and since your inital question mentioned the actual size instead of number of items, I wonder what the actual size is now?

Jeff
TechSoEasy

To be precise: 1.344.323 KB

Outlook Calender isn't being used and I think they have about 200 persons in their contact list.

I think the problem is that the mailbox keeps all messages and not just the ones from the last two days.

The mailbox could very well be corrupt... you could export out any messages you want to keep (using Outlook) and then delete and recreate the user account.

Jeff
TechSoEasy

I don't think this will solve my problem because it looks like with other users that their mailbox is growing too.

Well, just note that if you set Deleted Item Retention to 48 hours it can take up to 71 hours for them to be removed:

Per the KB article:

"In this example, if you delete a message at 8:00 A.M., the message does not become a candidate for hard deletion for 48 hours. The next information store maintenance procedure is scheduled to finish at 6 A.M., so the message is not hard deleted (the record is not removed) for 71 hours. "

Jeff
TechSoEasy

OK, I'll wait a couple of days but I have a hard time believing this is the solution.

Nope, didn't work.

Can it have something to do with the fact that that particular pc is running on XP home instead of professional?

Well, it certainly could!  You can't join an XP Home machine to a domain, so how is the Exchange account configured in Outlook?  Are you, in fact, using Outlook 2003?

Jeff
TechSoEasy

Yes, using outlook 2003

and the rest of the answer to my question?

Well, I don't have access to that machine right now but as I recall the setup was exactly the same as on machines with xp pro.

Jeff, this makes it all a lot more clearer.
It was my first time installing a server so it was al kinda new to me.

You're right that the users arent connected as active users and that they aren't managed makes sense now.

I'll make sure the any future pc's they purchase will have xp pro on them :)

Not only the future... but the ones they currently have should be upgraded.  Using XPHome is not a secure environment.  Since you can't control the machine, you can't stop viruses from propagating from those machines.  You also can't stop them from getting spyware, or malware or monitor them for things like keyloggers, etc.  On top of that... of course, whoever is using these machines cannot be nearly as productive as someone with an XP Pro machine who's fully integrated into the network.  

There are LOTS of cleaver things about SBS which makes it incredibly valuable... if you take the time to learn about those features... you'll be able to spend a lot less time troubleshooting, and maintaining... and more time showing folks how to be more productive with their investment!

See http://sbsurl.com/training for a great presenetation on the way it's supposed to work!

And for the technical side, check out http://sbsurl.com/seminar

:-)

Jeff
TechSoEasy

For the XP Pro machines... in order to connect them properly and have SBS be able to configure Outlook as well as lots of other things (see http://sbsurl.com/connectcomputer for a list of everything), please follow these steps to correct:


The XP Pro pc's should be fine because I added them to the network with the connectcomputer wizard?

If you did, then they should be fine.

Jeff
TechSoEasy