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bleujaegel

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Exchange 2000 corruption and M drive disappearing

I am having an issue with Exchange 2000 running on a W2K server.  This was a recent clean install (both).  There is no antivirus on the server yet.  It is connected to the switch, but the firewall is not yet connected to the internet.  It appeared to work fine at first.  I was sending and receiving email, and OWA worked perfectly internally.  Then all of the sudden the M drive disappeared.  I could no longer connect my test computers to check email via Outlook or OWA.  I then deleted the e00.log file, since the event logs said it was corrupted.  I was then able to connect for a short while, then Outlook and OWA stopped working again.  My guess is that it is a failing SCSI drive, but when I ran an advanced diagnostic on it, it passed.  It's not to say that it still isn't failing, but Windows seems to be working perfectly otherwise.  No other unusual errors in the event logs except for IIS and Exchange.

I had run eseutil and isinteg on the e00.log corruption error, and they fixed the corruption (temporarily).


In the application log, I am getting the following errors:

Event ID 1159 MSExchangeIS
Database error First Storage Group\Mailbox Store (TS2) occurred in function JTAB_BASE::EcRetrieveColumns while accessing the database "Disk IO error".

Event ID 1159 MSExchangeIS
Database error First Storage Group\Mailbox Store (TS2) occurred in function JTAB_BASE::EcRetrieveColumnByPtagId while accessing the database "Disk IO error".

In the system log, I am getting the following errors:

Event ID 101 W3SVC
The server was unable to add the virtual root '/public' for the directory 'M:\mydomain.com\Public Folders' due to the following error: The system cannot find the path specified.  The data is the error code.
For additional information specific to this message please visit the Microsoft Online Support site located at:

Event ID 101 W3SVC
The server was unable to add the virtual root '/Exchange' for the directory 'M:\mydomain.com\MBX' due to the following error: The system cannot find the path specified.  The data is the error code.
For additional information specific to this message please visit the Microsoft Online Support site located at:

Event ID 101 W3SVC
The server was unable to add the virtual root '/Exadmin' for the directory '\\.\BackOfficeStorage' due to the following error: The system cannot find the path specified.  The data is the error code.
For additional information specific to this message please visit the Microsoft Online Support site located at:

Event ID 101 W3SVC
The server was unable to add the virtual root '/' for the directory '/Internet Newsgroups' due to the following error: The parameter is incorrect.  The data is the error code.
For additional information specific to this message please visit the Microsoft Online Support site located at:

My question is could there be any other issue going on here other than a failing SCSI drive?  The disk I/O error would be a red flag, but just thought I'd ask an expert.  Anyone who has had this problem and could confirm this with me would be appreciated.
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redseatechnologies
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I have two immediate thoughts,

First, how are you going for disk space? (got to ask the easy questions)
Second, have you got the /3GB switch in you boot.ini file?

-red
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bleujaegel

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It's an 18gb drive.  I'm only running 512mb memory.  Does the /3gb switch still apply?  I remember something about that if you have more than 1gb you need this, but not sure.  Great points, though.
So you do not have the /3gb switch?

And how much free space is on that 18GB drive?

If you DO NOT have that switch, and you have more than say 2GB free on the drive, I would be expecting the issue to be drive.

-red
I know it's at least 1/2 full.  Not there to confirm exactly.  Correct, no /3gb switch, which must mean a bad hard drive.  It's just strange that it only seems to effect Exchange.

Is it typical that corruption  takes out Exchange in this fashion?  Seems rather nasty.
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I will reinstall the OS and Exchange on another drive and post the results hopefully tomorrow.  How aggravating doing a reinstall.  OS, DNS, AD, SP4, Exch, etc, etc.  You know the drill.  Just glad it happened sooner than later.  Thanks for your input.
Yes, it was indeed the hard drive.  No problems now.  I still get the 'The server was unable to add the virtual root' errors listed above, along with the stop signs in IIS, but it appears those are normal.  Looks like the Exchange services aren't starting up early enough, and are generating the errors.

Do you know of any good SCSI drive testing utilities?  I used one off UBCD, and ran the advanced test.  It reported no issues.  I need one that really works.
Having exchange on a DC will always generate errors like that.

For hard drive scanning, I am a huge fan of GRC Spinrite -> http://www.grc.com

I would be comfortable trusting a drive if that came back clean

-red
Duh, I have that one, I just forgot about it.  I'll test it out.  Thanks for your help.
No worries :)

-red
Turned out ok with Spinrite.  Now I'm stumped.  I guess I'll reformat it and reinstall and see if it exhibits the same issues.  The other one is still working perfectly.  Been using it all day.  Same cable, same power connector.
That would be a good test - Alternatively, you could try working on the database (eseutil and isinteg) but if you are comfortable with a format, go for that instead.

-red
I did both of those, and it reporting them corrupt and fixed them.  Something just kept re-corrupting the databases.
That really sounds like disk, the other thing you could try if you wanted would be to switch out the cables, PSU, SCSI card - but there is considerable cost there, if you can deal with a format, that would be a start.