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How do I restore Exchange Server Stores?

Overview

If you are using Exchange Server 2003 on Windows Server 2003 then you will download your *.edb and *.log files, dismount the existing Exchange Server Store, and then mount the new Exchange Server Store. Otherwise you will need to download the dump of your Exchange Server Database that was generated with ntbackup (your *.bkf files) and then follow a process to use ntbackup to restore your data.

Instructions

Exchange Server 2003 on Windows Server 2003:

1. Start the File Manager (Go to the Control Panel page in the Backup Manager. Click Manage or Restore Files.)
2. Use the wizard to select the Exchange Server database files (*.edb, *.stm, *.log, *.chk) you want to restore.
3. On the Restore Data: Options screen, choose to restore the files to a folder that is different from the folder containing your existing Exchange database files. Please choose a location that is on a local hard disk.
4. Be sure not to overwrite any existing files when performing the restore.
5. Follow the steps in the wizard to finish the restore process.
6. Dismount the Exchange Mailbox Store(s) you are restoring (see article How to Dismount Mailbox and Public Folder Stores)
7. Move the *.edb, *.stm, *.log, and *.chk files to a backup location (just in case -- it is better to preserve data, even if it appears corrupt, until you have finished the restore process).
8. Move the *.edb, *.stm, *.log, and *.chk files to their original locations. This is very important. They must be in their original locations. This is because the transaction log files (*.log) remember the exact location of the database files (*.edb, *.stm).
9. Mount the Exchange Mailbox Store(s) (see article How to Mount an Exchange Store). According to Microsoft, this may take a long time (approximately one minute for every 1000 folders in the public folder database). If you encounter errors during this step, please see this article.

Older Versions of Exchange Server or Windows Server:

1. Start the File Manager (Go to the Control Panel page in the Backup Manager. Click Manage or Restore Files.)
2. Use the wizard to select the dump of the Exchange Store that you want to restore.  (If you were using ntbackup to backup Exchange then this would have a file extension of bkf).
3. On the Restore Data: Options screen, choose to restore the files to a folder that is different from the folder containing your existing Exchange database files. Please choose a location that is on a local hard disk.
4. Be sure not to overwrite any existing files when performing the restore.
5. Follow the steps in the wizard to finish the restore process.
6. Use ntbackup (or the Exchange backup program that you used to generate the dump) to restore the information using the downloaded dump file.

Additional Resources

• Exchange Server 2003 data backup and Volume Shadow Copy services article
• Offline Backup and Restoration Procedures for Exchange
• Best Practices for Using Volume Shadow Copy Service with Exchange Server 2003
• What to do when an Exchange Store won't mount
• Performing a hard repair of an Exchange Store database
• What to do after you repair an Exchange Store database
• Exchange Mail Merge program
• Exchange VSS Writer FAQ (Technical)