I have a copy/backup of an exchange database (from a dead server) which I would like to extract the data from. I don't have a working backup of the system state so restoring the server would be a problem.

I have tried a few free bits of software off the web, which allows me to see the content but cannot extract the data unless I buy the full product for like $299.

Does anyone know of a piece of software that will extract the data and it's free? The database only has 3 mailboxes in it so don't want to spend a silly amount just for this one off occasion.

Or, if there is some way of accessing the mailboxes if the database is mountable on another server (I am able to build a test server if need be)?

Thanks

 

what version

Exchange 2003 - you have to recover the server as the database sits under the server object in AD

better in 2007 which has "database portability", but really good in 2010 as the database is just an object in AD org

but in any case if you can get it mounted just use exmerge (or the powershell equivalent in Ex2007/10)

 

What is the background to your request? Why can't you just build a new SQL server and restore the mailstore from your backup?

 

Thanks for the reply.

It's exchange 2003 from a sbs 2003 server. So, as I have no working system state backup is this going to be impossible, or if I built a sbs server with same name, ip, domain etc would that work?

 

Have you tried creating a new installation and mounting the backup mailstore? Was your data backed up by an 'exchange aware' backup product?

Working from memory without access to exchange here, I think this should give you what you need.

From within Exchange System Manager
Navigate to Servers > Primary Storage Group > Mailbox Store
Right-click Mailbox Store > Click Mount
Click Yes when prompted to create a new mailstore database
Click OK
Right-click Mailbox Store > Dismount
Right-click Mailbox Store > Properties
Database tab.
Put a tick in the "This database can be overwritten by a restore" option
OK

Then restore your mailstore data

Navigate to Servers > Primary Storage Group > Mailbox Store
Right-click Public Folder Store > Mount
Right-click Mailbox Store > Mount
Right-click Mailbox Store > Refresh
Restart the Exchange server

 

Background.....

Basically I had a 2003 sbs server which died due to multiple hardware failures meaning I had to do a full rebuild.

I have a working backup of general data and a backup of exchange but found out when coming to restore what I thought was a successful system state backup it turned out not to be the case.

So, I'm just trying to extract the content of the mailboxes from the exchange backup. Rather annoyingly it's only three mailboxes about 3gb in size so don't really wanna spend hundreds on recovery software but would be handy to get the data back.

Wasnt aware you could do anything with exchange in SQL?

I believed the system id would need to be the same on the system used to access the exchange data as what was in use on the original system, hence the need for the system state?

 

You need to have the above and the same exchange org name and storage group name too, otherwise the database won't mount

It would be usefull to have the exchange setup log.txt file, usually on the c drive

This contains all the info you need

 

Sorry - didn't mean to mislead you, have been working with SQL for the past six months, got SQL on the brain at the moment. I mean to type exchange server, in post 3.