Exchange priv1 much larger than total of meilboxes

Right click on the store and under limits change the retain deleted items to say 0 days so that you can run the defrag then set it back to something more reasonable.

sorry that's in Exchange System Manager under > Firsy Administrative Group > Servers > Servername > First Storage Group then right click Mailbox Store select properties then limits.

Thanks demazter: I wish it were that simple.  I've already set retention items to 0.
 
my apologies, I neglected to add the snippet from eseutil /ms:
 
1-16D248                Tbl        236     254485     8-s          8          3
  MsgFolderIndex7       Idx        237     254486     1-s          1          0
  MsgFolderIndexPtagDel Idx        240     254489     1-s          1          0
  MsgFolderIndexURLComp Idx        239     254488     1-s          1          0
  RuleMsgFolderIndex    Idx        238     254487     1-s          1          0
1-16D24B                Tbl        241     254493     8-s          8          2
  ExRuleMsgFolderIndex  Idx        246     254498     1-s          1          0
  MsgFolderIndex7       Idx        242     254494     1-s          1          0
  MsgFolderIndexPtagDel Idx        245     254497     1-s          1          0
  MsgFolderIndexURLComp Idx        244     254496     1-s          1          0
  RuleMsgFolderIndex    Idx        243     254495     1-s          1          0
1-23                    Tbl        247     254501     2-m   15895468         14
  <Long Values>         LV         248     254502     1-m   15876287          3
1-24                    Tbl        249   16149985     8-s          8          3
  MsgFolderIndex7       Idx        250   16149986     1-s          1          0
  MsgFolderIndexPtagDel Idx        253   16149989     1-s          1          0
  MsgFolderIndexURLComp Idx        252   16149988     1-s          1          0
  RuleMsgFolderIndex    Idx        251   16149987     1-s          1          0
 
section 1-23 is what I'm concerned with.
 
thanks,

Have a look at this thread here: http://www.msexchange.org/articles/Exchange-Databases-Disk-Consumption.html

Have a look at the section: Measuring the size and quantity of recoverable items to use perfmon to check how much space is recoverable.

Thanks again but this doesn't help.  I have virtually no recoverable items.  Did you look at the eseutil /ms exerpt above?  how can I flush the data that is in the <long values> section? Or determine what that is? Thanks,

I am not sure what that value is, I am trying to find out for you.

Thanks for your help....

Have you run an ISINTEG on the database?

I have not.  The defrag took until 6:00 am and users are back in for production now so I can't unmount the IS.  Everythign is working fine but I know I'm extremely close to the 75 GB limit and I would really like to get rid of this ~40GB of fluff.

Check the 1221 event on your exchange server and see how much white space available, you can reclaim this space by doing an offline defragmentation.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/328804
Another way is to move the mailboxes to another store and delete the empty mailbox store data file.

The original post said that an offline defrag had been done?
Was offline or an online defrag performed over night?

It was an offline defrag.  However, I am showing over 30GB of free space in event 1221.  So why wouldn't the defrag have cleaned that up?  Another question.  Does eseutil /d delete the temp database when the defrag completes?  The defrag stated that it completed but the temp database was still there.  I was expecting it to be deleted when the degrag completed...the temp .stm was deleted.
This is SBS..can't create another store and dont' have another Exchange server.

Check this link: http://www.msexchange.org/tutorials/Exchange-ISINTEG-ESEUTIL.html
An offline defrag should have cleared that up, I have had a few occasions when the temp database has not been deleted.

What I normally do is copy the edb & stm files to another volume and run ESEUTIL from there then copy them back to the original location after renaming the original ones.

The reason I rename the originals is that if for some reason the copied files do not work then I can still go back to the original, of course yuo could just copy them somewhere else before overwriting them.

This is the process I follow as well in regards to running a defrag.  Any other way I might manually clean this database up?

Do you have any database errors or warnings in event log?

No, not other than a nosey user that's trying to open another user's mailbox.

update: priv1.edb just started growning again!!!!  log files (5 mb each) are being created at a rate of cbout 20 per second.  What could be going on?

sounds like a dodgy rule that is NDR'ing or other such?
Your best bet is an ISINTEG as per the link on my previous post.

Mail looping is one reason, another possibility someone might be importing PST's..

update2:
Typical scenario.  When calling the owner of the business to tell him that I was going to have to come out and rebuild the IS, he gave me the old "let me tell you this problem that I've been having to two days..." line.  There was a 15MB email in his out box trying to be sent.  I have removed it (had to delete his Outlook profile and re-create).  Things seem to be back to normal.  Now I just have to get rid of the 30+ GB of fluff in the priv1 db.

You will need to do a defrag again I suspect

I agree....  At this point, would you use eseutil /d or isinteg /g ?

Run - ISINTEG fix -test alltests - and see if any fixes are there..then run - eseutil /d <database>

Thanks.  I will proceed after production hours this evening and follow up with any results.  Please feel free to include any more ideas you may have.

Ran both utils last night.  The offlien defrag only reduced the size of the db by a few mb.  event 1221 reports over 30GB free space.  Is there any other way for me to free this space?

was ther any fixes in ISINTEG result?

Yes, tons.
integ.log

At this point, should I just create a new IS and import mailboxes?  thanks again for all of your support!

did you run ISINTEG before or after ESUTIL?

before.

Thanks again for your help.  I ended up wiping out the IS and re-importing mailboxes.  They are almost complete and all testing has been done.