Orphaned mailbox
I am in the middle of finishing up a migration from Microsoft 2003 Server with Exhange 2003 to SBS 2008. So far everything has gone as planed except I have one mailbox that didn't completely migrate over, and it is now considered orphaned in the Exchange 2003 box. Because of this I am not able to remove Exchange from the server and also demote it. When I right click on the mailbox I have only a couple of options: one, Reconnect, or two, Purge. But it will not Purge so only one option exists which is to Reconnect. If Reconnect, what am I reconnecting to? Am I reconnecting to the new server to finish the migration, or am I reconnecting to the old mailbox? Please advice. Thanks in advance.
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ASKER
When I create a temporary user, I create it without a mailbox, right? Because I will be attaching this orphaned mailbox to it later.
Correct.
ASKER
I get an error message when I try to reconnect it to the temporary user that I just created.
"The operation cannot be performed because this mailbox was already reconnected to an existing user."
"The operation cannot be performed because this mailbox was already reconnected to an existing user."
ASKER
Things have gone from bad to worse.
I was following another forum on how to fix her mailbox. I figured most of her email migrated to the new server so I could purge her mailbox. The steps to purging her mailbox suggested to first Remove Exchange Attributes on the source server, which I did but it affected her mailbox on the SBS 2008. She no longer has email! I am, however, now able to remove the 2003 Exchange server and possibly demote it. I need to some how reconnect her to her mailbox on the SBS server. Any suggestions on how to do that? I have a good backup on the SBS server; it is recent.
I was following another forum on how to fix her mailbox. I figured most of her email migrated to the new server so I could purge her mailbox. The steps to purging her mailbox suggested to first Remove Exchange Attributes on the source server, which I did but it affected her mailbox on the SBS 2008. She no longer has email! I am, however, now able to remove the 2003 Exchange server and possibly demote it. I need to some how reconnect her to her mailbox on the SBS server. Any suggestions on how to do that? I have a good backup on the SBS server; it is recent.
You should see the orphaned mailbox on the 2008 SBS server now. Do you?
ASKER
I tried restoring her mailbox but that didn't work. I kept getting errors in the process. I ended up restoring her ost file converting it to pst and then manually restoring all her emails. After I did this, the next morning I found her mailbox in the disconnected portion of ESM. I didn't connect it to her email because I had already restored her email files manually. So now it is still in the disconnected part of the ESM. She does need her contacts which I didn't see when I converted her ost to pst. I am not sure what to do about that.
After this I tried uninstalling Exchange from the 2003 server box, but it still didn't want to uninstall, so manually uninstalled it through the Registry, however, the ESM is still on the 2003 box. I then tried uninstalling it once again through Add/Remove Programs what was remaining of Exchange, but it came back and said that Exchange is not installed, do you want to remove it from Add/Remove Programs, so I clicked Yes. I guess my concern is all of Exchange really uninstalled or will it come back and haunt me after 21 days? ESM is still on the 2003 server.
After this I tried demoting the server. Guess what? It wouldn't let me. It also came up with an error message. In the notes that I was following, it said the server didn't have to be demoted, so I left it at its current state:
1. Exhange manually uninstalled through the Registry
2. ESM still on the system but not working
3. Server is not demoted because of error message
Will this work? Or will it give my new SBS 2008 installation problems after 21 days?
After this I tried uninstalling Exchange from the 2003 server box, but it still didn't want to uninstall, so manually uninstalled it through the Registry, however, the ESM is still on the 2003 box. I then tried uninstalling it once again through Add/Remove Programs what was remaining of Exchange, but it came back and said that Exchange is not installed, do you want to remove it from Add/Remove Programs, so I clicked Yes. I guess my concern is all of Exchange really uninstalled or will it come back and haunt me after 21 days? ESM is still on the 2003 server.
After this I tried demoting the server. Guess what? It wouldn't let me. It also came up with an error message. In the notes that I was following, it said the server didn't have to be demoted, so I left it at its current state:
1. Exhange manually uninstalled through the Registry
2. ESM still on the system but not working
3. Server is not demoted because of error message
Will this work? Or will it give my new SBS 2008 installation problems after 21 days?
ASKER