Microsoft, Exchange, 2007, Unable to initialize the Microsoft Exchange Information Store service. Failed to find the working directory parameter from the registry - Error 0x80004005.

Hi,

I once installed MS Exchange 2007 x64 on a Windows Server 2003 R2 x64 SP1. Later I tried uninstalling it and there was an error message indicating that the exchange server cannot be uninstall because of a secondary public folder. I googled and the only suggestion I found at that time was to use ASEDIT to delete Exchange entries and delete registry keys and manually delete exchange files. I managed to uninstall the Exchange Server using this method.

Later on, I decided to install the Exchange server on the same server again and everything went smooth except that the setup could not start Microsoft Exchange Information Store service. Now I tried to manually start this service and I get this error:

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Services
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Windows could not start the Microsoft Exchange Information Store on Local Computer. For more information, review the System Event Log. If this is a non-Microsoft service, contact the service vendor, and refer to service-specific error code 0.
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OK  
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when I look the event log, I see this error:

Event Type:      Error
Event Source:      MSExchangeIS
Event Category:      General
Event ID:      5000
Date:            10/13/2008
Time:            4:51:23 PM
User:            N/A
Computer:      ExchServer
Description:
Unable to initialize the Microsoft Exchange Information Store service. Failed to find the working directory parameter from the registry - Error 0x80004005.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.


I granted full access control to the exchange installation directory but it doesn't work.

Then I wanted to uninstall the Exchange Server and I receive an error message indicating that there's a public folder and I should remove it prior the uninstallation process.

I tried using Dismount-Database and Remove-PublicFolderDatabase and Remove-MailBoxDatabase and I received an error message indicating that the object "Public Folder Database" could not be found in the AD.

I tried several other methods I found on the web and now I receive this error message when I try to use Remove commands:


"Could not find any Domain Controller in domain domain.local"

So now I'm stuck in a situation where I can't start the service and I can't uninstall exchange.

Any ideas?