Exchange 2007 Mail Database will not mount

please chk if system attendant service is running or not .

Ohh sorry i didnt saw the last sentence.. So is the database Healthy..?

running eseutil/r /a /l logfile path /d database path currently (The utility said to use /a when running this).  The /mh command indicated it was dirty so I moved forward with this (after copying all of the files to a different location in case something goes wrong).  Will let you know what comes back.

Also the services were all running which I actually already checked based on other posts I saw here.

Also please check if the disk space is fine on the drive which holds the .edb ,
R M Ron @ Do investigate the reason for the dirty shutdown and check for the appropriate events .

I received the following error which does not sound good

Error -1216 (0xfffffb40) JET_errAttachedDatabaseMismatch

MS Site said:  "This error is closely related to error -551 (JET_errConsistentTimeMismatch). It typically occurs after a simultaneous failure of all databases in a storage group if one of the databases is no longer available (for example, because its disk has been destroyed)."
 

So it clearly says that the hard disk was the problem, once run chkdsk on the physical disk.

Running this now.  I should have also noted that on reboot there were disk related errors corrected by 2003 server.  Also the exchange machine is a VMWare guest.

Ok so i think that you will end up with some bad sectors and so you have to run chkdsk /f

For time being go for a dial tone scenario , in the mean while u can trouble shoot your harddisk .
Soft recovery of the database before making any changes to the database that might prevent the re-integration of the missing files with the data set.If this error occurs, ideally, you should try to restore the missing files. If these files are unavailable, you can use an option in Eseutil to override the error and proceed with soft recovery despite missing or mismatched files.

so I did the forced soft recovery and it said it was successful but still cannot mount the database?

Did u perform the integrity check ?

isinteg -s (SERVER) -fix -test alltests

I tried to creat a new datstore to mount and get the same error also, making me think it is service related but all services are running and I restarted to troubleshoot several times in the past 24 hours.

Ron @ check this article , http://support.microsoft.com/kb/828068

What lead up to this situation?

Ganyboy:  I will check link

alanhardisty:  Dirty shutdown during windown nt backup (1:20am Tuesday morning).  NT Backup didn't actually back it up so no backup available.  

So far did PrepareAD, checked AD permissions, Tried soft recover with several different options.

Just noticed my system drive only had 9 GB of storage remaining (of 100 gb) not sure if related but wanted to point out.

I guess during correction of disk related errors by 2003 server it deleted some tracks by which exchange database is effected.

Problem:

Dirty shutdown during windown nt backup (1:20am Tuesday morning).  NT Backup didn't actually back it up so no backup available.  We restarted the exchange machine to see if this would clear the issue and Win2003 corrected disk error.

Actions so far:

-Backup up mail database and related log file directory manually (post issue) in case actions made database unusable.
-Created new databases in storage group and received same error
-Verified all sevrices are running
-Restarted Excahnge several times between actions
-PrepareAD
-checked AD permissions
-soft recover ran with several different options.
-ran chkdsk which reported no errors.

I read the MS article above also, I see a file tyoe noted as "recovered file fragment" named "E00.chk" in the database/log directory for the production datastore.  I still don't understand why I can not even creat a new data store and connect (get the same "Error code: MapiExceptionCallFailed: Unable to mount database")

After creating a new database you have to restart Information store, i hope you did that as well.
Change the database path  to another drive and try to create a new store over there, restart IS service and try to mount.

Do you still have the logs in the same folder?  If you do - copy them to another location then delete from the original location and then repair the store with eseutil /p.

If that is happy, then run eseutil /d followed by "isinteg -s servername -fix -test alltests", then re-run isinteg unless you see 0 errors and 0 fixes in the last line of output, then try to mount the database.

Exchange9:  I did a full reboot (assuming that would rstart all services for me).  Will try the path now.

Alanhardisty:  I will try this solution after Exchange9's as this one I beleive will take some time to execute and may render my file unusable if things go wrong?

File won't be unusable at all - it will be fine.

The issue is the logs / file containing the reference to the latest log file being used not being consistent.

Moving the logs and e00.chk file to another location, then repairing, defraying and integrity checking the file will make it usable again.

You may have to repair / defrag / integrity check any other databases stored in the same directory before ALL database will mount though.

I suggest you to change the log file path as well., make sure that it was empty at the start and after restarting Infostore service it will automatically form new files.
If the database was mounted then try the solution which was suggested by alanhardsty..

Ok, thank you for these additional steps to try.  I am working on trying these now.  going on 48 hours down so partners are becoming increasinly unhappy with me :(

Mail is going to start bouncing permanently if things don't pick up.

You need to get this moving soon.

Try all the ways which you can and which are suggested by many techs over here., so that next time if you face similar issue, you can troubleshoot in many ways. All the best :)

I have a logged error in the application log related to the First Storage Group.  I think I have been looking at the wrong thing (i.e. the mbox database itself).  I am going to also look that direction.

What is that error, can you post it here please.

This is in the application log:

Event Type:      Error
Event Source:      MSExchangeIS
Event Category:      General
Event ID:      9518
Date:            9/28/2011
Time:            4:35:27 PM
User:            N/A
Computer:      RMC-E01
Description:
Error Log file is corrupt starting Storage Group /DC=local/DC=rmc-chi/CN=Configuration/CN=Services/CN=Microsoft Exchange/CN=RM Consulting/CN=Administrative Groups/CN=Exchange Administrative Group (FYDIBOHF23SPDLT)/CN=Servers/CN=RMC-E01/CN=InformationStore/CN=First Storage Group on the Microsoft Exchange Information Store.

This may be more useful:

Event Type:      Error
Event Source:      ESE
Event Category:      Logging/Recovery
Event ID:      412
Date:            9/28/2011
Time:            4:50:22 PM
User:            N/A
Computer:      RMC-E01
Description:
MSExchangeIS (3332) First Storage Group: Unable to read the header of logfile C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\Mailbox\First Storage Group\E00.log. Error -501.

Okay - as per my previous comments, remove all files apart from .DEB and .STM to another location, then repair, defragment and integrity check the databases, then mount them.

This should get you up and running quickly.

Just to make sure I am getting this correctly.  I have two directoriues wth log files.  The first is with the .edb file (on F:\Datastore\ on my server) and the other is with the first storage group location on the C:\ drive.  Do I have to remove log files from both locations (except .deb and .stm) or just one (then which one)?

Yes just cut paste them to a other folder.
restart info store and try to mount.

So I couldn't get this datastore to mount.  I tried all solutions but think I need to start over because it said it was successful but still would not mount after restarting the info store.

However, I ended up able to mount a blank edb file using some of this guidance wich allowed me to at least get connected and getting my users email/sending email.  I am going to continue to try the solutions here with the files I copied before starting this process and will post back when I am finally restored.  Closing this one for now though.  This was incredibly helpful, thanks!!