Step by Step Guide To Restore Corrupt Exchange Server Mailboxes

Sometimes a situation occurs when Exchange Server administration faces some logical errors such as incorrect element display in folder or their incorrect quantity, this could be the reason of corrupt exchange server user's mailbox.

This is the very common Exchange Server errors which is occur due to malfunction on the client’s side where sometimes client incorrectly updates MAPI flags during the processing of mail folders element. It has been detected that logical errors usually happen within shared mailboxes where many users might be working simultaneously. 

Generally users can’t suspect these errors in their mailbox or folders as everything operates correctly. But when the something going wrong, then user is unable to access certain folders and mailboxes.

Sometimes the situation becomes worst when the emails or folders get deleted or unable to view which are saved in the mailbox. Exchange Server Administrator may use these tricks to restore corrupt exchange server mailboxes. Use Step by Step guide to recover exchange server mailboxes.

          1) Import data from MS Outlook: With this method you need to convert the OST file of Outlook account into PST file, then delete and create the new mailbox and lastly import data from PST file to the new mailbox. However this method results in certain level of manual manipulations on user’s PC.

       2)  Disable of mailbox store: In this method, you need to disable the mailbox store fully and check it with Isinteg.exe utility, which allows repair the damages in Exchange Database on application level. But this method requires a halt on service time for all users whose mailbox is allocated in disabled mailbox database.

      3) Use backup to restore Exchange database: In this manual method, you need to import data from mailbox to PST file and further transfer data to mailbox. But one disadvantage is that all emails which delivered to user’s mailbox after last backup execution time can be lost.

One easiest way to Restore Damaged Mailbox logical structure, a new Powershell cmdlet New-MailboxRepairRequest which allows finding and fixing all logical error in Exchange Database.

 Moreover the error correction and search can be customized as per your need. User can select any specific or all mailboxes for restore regularly. There is no need to put all mailboxes in off-line mode. But before performing any above method to restore mailbox integrity, you should definitely try to use this command.

Command 1:

New-MailboxRepairRequest -Mailbox sample@domain.com –CorruptionTypeFolderView

This command detects and repairs all folder views for the mailbox sample@domain.com.

Command 2:

New-MailboxRepairRequest-Mailbox peter-CorruptionTypeProvisionedFolder,SearchFolder -DetectOnly

This command detects and reports on ProvisionedFolder and SearchFolder corruption issues to Peter Smith’s mailbox.

If the above method did not help you in Restoring Exchange Server Mailboxes or you are facing difficulty to run this process. In that case i would strongly recommend you to Use a third party application. You can use this application at Free of Cost. You can restore the corrupt exchange server mailboxes with demo version. If you are completely satisfied with the software capability, Then you need to purchase the software license to save recover Mailboxes.

Good thing about this software is that, you can use this software at free of cost, recover data and after satisfied then purchase it.

Thanks

Manually Repair Exchange Server Databases with Eseutil/Isinteg Tool

To repair corrupt exchange database Exchange administrators can take help of Eseutil and Isinteg utilities.  Both utilities such as Eseutil.exe and Isinteg.exe are inbuilt with MS Exchange Server and provide soft and hard database recovery from corrupt Exchange Server. You can find these tools in following drive location:

1.       To Run Eseutil.exe you have to go to C: Program Files, here you will find Exchsrvrbin directory Type Eseutil.exe file. 

2.      Repair switch Eseutil.exe has two repair switches “/r” and “p” for repairing corrupt Exchange database.  “/r”  run for Eseutil /R Recovery Mode and  “p” Run for Eseutil /P Repair Mode 

3.      Now  Run Eseutil /r 

4.      Run Eseutil/p command is used for soft database recovery mode. In case if you’re EDB files are severely damaged, then you should use Eseutil/p command. The command line to repair severely damaged  EDB file is:

             Eseutil /p C:\Program files\Exchsvr\mdbdata\ primary name.EDB

Now Run Eseutil /D Defragmentation Mode After the repair is done, now you have to     defragment the repaired EDB file by using Eseutil /d

    To perform integrity check-

Run Isinteg –s {Exchange Server name}-

Run the Isinteg command line until no errors are reported to the server.

                       Now Run Isinteg -s

5.       Run the Eseutil /G Integrity Mode to check the integrity of the repaired EDB database 

6.      Now this repaired EDB database can be remounted on the Exchange Server by using Exchange Administrative tools. 

7.      If you are performing Defragmentation by using Eseutil/d; you have to specify the type of database. Such as

            Option Description /ds Directory /ispriv for Private information and store /ispub for storing Public information 

8.     Now To specify the type of operations click on

    Option Description /b <path>;

It will make a backup copy of the original database at the specified location.

9.        Some additional Eseutil command switches are

·         Eseutil /C Restore Mode Eseutil /K Checksum Mode

·         Eseutil /M File Dump Mode Eseutil /Y Copy File Mode 

10.    Eseutil /C, The Eseutil command can be run in restore mode for hard database recovery from online backup. For this,  run-

              Eseutil /C. It will create a Restore.env file. 

11.   ESEUTIL /CC ESEUTIL /CM ESEUTIL /CC /T are, additional switches can be used with the /C switch. By Running:

                                 ESEUTIL /CCTo

                           You can see the Restore.env file

                         Now run: ESEUTIL /CM

                         To view the transaction logs in the Restore.env run:

                           ESEUTIL /CC /T 

12.  By Eseutil/kIt tool you can confirms the data integrity of pages in the Exchange.  such as  database.ESEUTIL /K <filename>

13.   Eseutil/mIt tool is used to get the information about the state of the repaired EDB database files. 

14.    To View the header of private information store checkpoint files. Run :

o   Eseutil /mk switch

o   Eseutil/mh

o   Eseutil/ml

o   Eseutil/mk 

15.   From the tool Eseutil/msI you can determine the amount of space in Exchange database.

 

      But if you are Facing EDB corruption due to JET engine failure or software malfunctioning, it cannot be fixed with Eseutil and Isinteg command tools. In this case you should choose a third party Exchange Database repair utility.

Here is an application which you can download at free of cost and repair your Exchange Database. And you are eligible to see the preview of recover data but this tool does not allow you to save data. You need to register the full version license to save data.

       

Repair your Corrupt PST files with help of SCANPST.EXE Tool

MS Outlook uses an Outlook data file, known as PST or Personal Storage Table. This tool is use to store all the email messages and other mailbox items. There are two types of Outlook PST files: ANSI PST and Unicode PST. ANSI is the default file format of Ms Outlook 2002 and its previous version. It can save up to 2GB of data’s. While Unicode PST is the default file format of MS Outlook 2003 and its later versions. A Unicode file can store data up to 20 GB and in MS Outlook 2010 version it can store up to 50 GB of data. If a PST file exceeds from the limited size it can be corrupt. An oversized PST files are the main reason of corruption. Your MS Outlook application may hang while opening an oversized PST file or user may experience poor performance. Once a PST file becomes corrupted it cannot be opened in MS Outlook. Main reason behind this abnormal behavior of MS Outlook is an oversized PST file. 

Oversized files are not the only reason behind PST file corruption; there are several reason which may corrupt or damage your PST data files such as hard drive failure, virus attacks, sudden shutdown of system, storage media malfunction, unexpected cancellation of MS Outlook  etc. 

Microsoft Outlook provides a built-in repair function, which can be used to repair corrupt PST files. This Inbox Repair tool of MS Outlook is commonly known as SCANPST.EXE. This file is installed at the time of MS Office or MS Outlook installation. 

To repair corrupt outlook file first go to the location of Microsoft outlook. Check if there any MS Outlook program is not running on the systemic. If any program is running then closed it immediately. If you find SCANPST.EXE file the following steps are required:

1. Go to the location where SCANPST.EXE file is saved.

2.  Then Double-click SCANPST.EXE.

3. Here you will see pop of A short window Microsoft Outlook Inbox Repair Tool  

4. Click to Browse to select corrupt PST file from the system directory.

5.  A new window “Select File to scan” will pop up here. Select desired corrupt PST file. 

 6. Now you can see the Selected PST file on the edit box. Now click on Start to start the scanning.

7. SCANPST.EXE will start scanning of the corrupt PST file

8. Within a few seconds your file will be scanned. Now you can see the errors and issues on the dialog box.

9. You will find a new popup window of “Make backup of scanned file before repairing” is checked by default. Now click on Repair button to repair the scanned PST file.

10. Within couple of minutes your file will be repaired and you will see this message on your computer screen-

Generally SCANPST.EXE can repair a corrupt PST files successfully. But if your file is severely corrupted this SCANPST.EXE tool can not fix it. SCANPST.EXE is useful to fix minor issues from corrupt PST files. 

In that case we suggest our user to try third party application. With the help of this application, you can repair pst file easily and also recover deleted emails, which will show you in preview items. All this process happened in free version license. But you cannot save the emails until you purchase the full version license. 

Good thing about this application is that, you are completely assure before purchasing the software and also you will get 30 days money back guarantee. And price is very competitive. You can download this application from here: