I have a SBS2000 running Exchange 2000, yesterday it hit the 16GB limit and since then I had nothing but problems with it.
I first did the registry trick and this allows the workstation to connect, I then archived 3GB off the server, but still the EDB shows 16.1GB in size, I then tried eseutil /p followed by eseutil /p with same result, I did a reboot just in case, I check the Mailboxes in ESM and this shows adding all users comes to just over 12GB (only 7 users), yet I cant get Exchange to free up the space so I can mount the server correctly as it stays at 16.1GB, hence shutting down the IS.
When I ran eseutil /p it came back with over 100 unknown errors but I managed to restored an image from yesterday to a fresh test server and it show the same errors yet the server were still working, I could use the spare test server as its almost identical minus this morning emails, but the EDB on the restored server showing 15.9GB so its a matter of minutes before I get hit with the same thing.
Would be most grateful for any help on this one urgently as I been doing this for over 8 hrs non-stop.
The space reported in Exchange System Manager for a user's mailbox will be vastly different to what is reported in Outlook; it can't be relied upon to give a true indication of the total size of the mailboxes.
Deleting data from a mailbox will not erase it from the Exchange stores immediately; Deleted Items retention will mean the mail remains in the store until Online Maintenance removes it.
Since the database is dismounting at 16GB, I assume this is Exchange 2000 Standard Edition, where you are limited to one mailbox store. We therefore cannot simply create a new store and Move Mailboxes, per best practice; you need to mount the database temporarily, and take action to reduce its size.
The first step is to mount the database. Add the fix defined at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/813051, which temporarily extends the maximum store size to 17GB and will allow you to mount the database.
Reduce Deleted Items retention time to 0 days, then force Online Maintenance to take place. This will zero out the database pages used by the items in the dumpster.
Finally, dismount the database and run an eseutil /d - this will perform an Offline Defrag of the database, removing the white space and bringing it back below the 16GB level.
Remove the registry entry added earlier, then re-mount the store once again.
-Matt