sglee
asked on
Restored mailboxes and OST
Hi,
I have a corrupted Exchange (2010)database that went corrupted on Monday 4/17/2017 and I can't repair the mailbox database. I have a Windows server backup as of Saturday 4/15/2017. Each user's Outlook has .OST file and created PST file from each user's Outlook after corruption occurred.
I am at a point that I need to decide what do to among two options:
(1) Create a new mailbox database and create each user's mailbox. Then import PST into each user's Outlook. If I can somehow make .OST file work directly with newly created mailbox, that would be even better, but I don't know if it is even possible.
(2) Restore Exchange database as of 4/15/2017 from the backup drive. In this case, Restored mailbox would not have emails (sent/received) on 4/15, 4/16 and part of 4/17. But I don't know what would actually happen if I open user's Outlook with .OST file that has emails up to 4/17/2017.
What would you do?
I have a corrupted Exchange (2010)database that went corrupted on Monday 4/17/2017 and I can't repair the mailbox database. I have a Windows server backup as of Saturday 4/15/2017. Each user's Outlook has .OST file and created PST file from each user's Outlook after corruption occurred.
I am at a point that I need to decide what do to among two options:
(1) Create a new mailbox database and create each user's mailbox. Then import PST into each user's Outlook. If I can somehow make .OST file work directly with newly created mailbox, that would be even better, but I don't know if it is even possible.
(2) Restore Exchange database as of 4/15/2017 from the backup drive. In this case, Restored mailbox would not have emails (sent/received) on 4/15, 4/16 and part of 4/17. But I don't know what would actually happen if I open user's Outlook with .OST file that has emails up to 4/17/2017.
What would you do?
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SOLUTION
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If there are many users, there are ways to automate some of this. If there are not very many, it's probably easier to do it manually as described above.
ASKER
Let me repeat what I think I heard from you:
(1) I will make sure that I create PST from each Outlook OST as an individual backup.
(2) I will restore the most recent exchange database from Saturday's backup.
(3) Mount the restored database.
(4) Open Outlook to see if it opens with existing OST file.
(5) if it does, I am done.
(6) If Outlook fails to open with OST file, then delete OST and open Outlook again. It will create a new OST with old email data (as of Saturday). Then I can import PST into Outlook and choose "Do not import if it already exists".
(1) I will make sure that I create PST from each Outlook OST as an individual backup.
(2) I will restore the most recent exchange database from Saturday's backup.
(3) Mount the restored database.
(4) Open Outlook to see if it opens with existing OST file.
(5) if it does, I am done.
(6) If Outlook fails to open with OST file, then delete OST and open Outlook again. It will create a new OST with old email data (as of Saturday). Then I can import PST into Outlook and choose "Do not import if it already exists".
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ASKER
@Amit,
I know that I can restore DB from the backup.
The question that I have is that if I run Outlook, after database restore, whether latest emails (in .OST) will be merged into restored mailboxes.
I know that I can restore DB from the backup.
The question that I have is that if I run Outlook, after database restore, whether latest emails (in .OST) will be merged into restored mailboxes.
"whether latest emails (in .OST) will be merged into restored mailboxes"
I would go with the assumption that they will not. Once you have done the restoration, it may be challenging to access the old OST file.
I would go with the assumption that they will not. Once you have done the restoration, it may be challenging to access the old OST file.
ASKER
I will restore Exchange Database from Server Backup device tomorrow. Once it is mounted, then I will try to open Outlook from each user PC to see what happens. If I see emails as of Monday 4/17 and connected to Exchange server, then we are good and there is nothing to do. If it shows connected and only shows emails up to 4/15, then I will simply import from PST.
That sounds correct......
ASKER
I was able to repair the database successfully. So there was no need to restore from the backup.
Thanks for your help.
Thanks for your help.
ASKER
"recreated the mailbox, then import from the .PST file." --> Did you mean to say (1) create a new mailbox database, create each user's mailbox and import from PST file?