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Using edb and stm files without ANY of the accompanying log files, chk files etc

We are using Exchange 2003 with no problems. We are using NTBackup for backing up Exchange with no issues. We also use Retrospect 7.6 to backup exchange. We have a recovery storage group. Our one and only mail store includes mailbox and public folder stores together. We can run an Exchange Restore to Recovery Storage group using NT backup with NO PROBLEMS (DANTZ, did you hear that? The FREE program HAS NO PROBLEMS restoring to a recovery storage group in spite of the presence of a public folder store in the backed up data). But, when we try to do an Exchange Recovery using Retrospect, it fails at the very very end after restoring the 45GB total equivalent recovered.edb and recovered.stm files (renamed here for clarity) to the recovery folder. It fails because the remaining 300MB of public folders cant be restored (nice going Retrospect - NOT). Anyway, I am VERY confident that the edb and stm files are totally fine but when I try to mount them Microsoft starts yelling at me with event ID 619, 9519 and 9518 in that order. I hope and assume there MUST be a way to tell Exchange to IGNORE any and ALL OTHER files in the folder other than the recovered.edb and recovered.stm files (renamed here for clarity) but I cant figure it out. I have numerous tapes made by retrospect with old files that I need to recover some mailbox data from. The restore.env file is empty so eseutil /cc does not seem to be an option either (THanks again Retrospect.) I know about Ontrack but am not looking to go that route. I want to solve THIS problem not find a $1000 workaround.

Jack_French

During your restore using Retrospect did you tell it that this was the last tape in the set or something along those lines, please excuse me I am not familiar with the Retrospect program. But it sounds like the restore did not even attempt a hard recovery at the end, you may want to go ahead with the /cc even though you say the restore.env is blank.
Otherwise you could try to run an /p /d and isinteg /fix on the db to get it to mount....

MITCH1163

ASKER

Thanks for the reply. Wouldn't it be just nifty if Retrospect gave that option....no, they give NO options when restoring an Exchange database - NONE! Like wouldnt it be nice to be able to select just the mailbox store - how hard could that be - but no, they dont give any options. Also, the restore basically "fails" from their perspective since when it gets to the Public Mailbox it cant find a database (in the RSG) to restore into so it just stops right there - after fully restoring the two main mailbox store files (edb and stm). I am currently running eseutil /p on the files since 12 hours ago and it is stuck on "deleting Unicode fixup table" for about 9 hours now.

Jack_French

Yes I was wondering the same thing, why you couldn't just chose the private db and not both the priv and pub....but I figured you would have if you could :)
Do you have access to another server?
Did you ever run an /mh on the DB was it in a dirty shutdown state?
Good luck with that /p, how large is the DB?

MITCH1163

ASKER

No access easily to another server. I did run the /mh to confirm a dirty shutdown state. Database is 45GB. I guess what I am really looking for is the answer to the following: Lets say you have a perfectly working exchange system. YOu stop ALL services. Remove ALL files from the MDBDATA folder EXCEPT the priv and pub, edb and stm files (so four files total). Relaunch all services. Obviously the database wont mount even though you KNOW all the files are perfectly fine. HOW DO YOU TELL EXCHANGE TO IGNORE THE FACT THAT ALL THOSE LOG FILES AND CHK FILES ARE MISSING AND TO pick up from this point. There MUST be an E A S Y way to do that?!?!? (Or am I crazy?)

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Jack_French

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MITCH1163

ASKER

Jack
I gave you the points even though it was not what I was looking for but I very much appreciate your efforts and your attention. I find it SOOOOoooo aggravating that Retrospect simply falls short in so many places - but it IS very easy to use and very easy to understand. Anyway, I suspect everything you said is accurate, it just wasn't really what I was looking for. I stopped running the eseutil after 36 #$*$#&#$&#*( hours and it was still going. And it WASNT hung either. So ultimately the whole thing was a total waste and I may never be able to restore those old Exchange stores to the RSG. Feel free to email me offline if you wish too at mpessin at mpcsi com