Introduction to Exchange information store:

Exchange information store:
The main components of The Information Store are: Storage groups, Transaction logs, Mailbox stores (admin mailbox & user mailbox).

However the above structure may possess a slight variation from version to version. If I compare the Exchange versions 2000 and 2003 then following differences can be observed:
Exchange 2000(Any Exchange 2000 service pack level) or Exchange 2003 Standard Pre-SP2 has 1 + 1 Recovery Storage Group. It has 1 Mailbox store and 1 Public Folder Store per Storage Group and 16GB Store Size Limit
Exchange 2003 Standard /w SP2 has 1 + 1 Recovery Storage Group. It has 1 Mailbox store and 1 Public Folder Store per Storage Group and 75GB Store Size Limit
Exchange 2000 or 2003 Enterprise has 4 + 1 Recovery Storage Group. It has 5 per Storage Group and 16TB of Store Size Limit per Store

Storage Groups:
An Exchange Storage Group consists of Mailboxes and Public Folder stores. The number of mailboxes can be single or multiple that depends on the Exchange version or may be set by the Exchange user according to the organizational requirements. The commonly used configuration is single Mailbox Store and single Public Folder.
As the name indicates Mailbox stores contains the mailboxes; these mailboxes include the user and system mailboxes both.
All public folder data and other content are stored within the Public Folder Store.
A storage group is combined of Mailbox Store and a Public Folder Store. Whenever Exchange server is installed then Storage Group is created by default.  Mailbox Store consists of two files: Priv1.edb and Priv1.stm.
Priv1.edb: These files store the emails, attachments and mail headers in a rich-text format.
Priv1.stm: It is a streaming file associated with the Priv1.edb which contains the MIME day that multi-media data i.e. audio, video graphics etc.
Each Public Folder Store contains two files Pub1.edb and Pub1.stm.

Pub1.edb: These files store the emails, attachments and mail headers in a rich-text format in the Public Folder tree.
Pub1.stm: It is a streaming file associated with the Pub1.edb which contains the MIME day that multi-media data i.e. audio, video graphics etc. 

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How to resolve Exchange Error 4294966746: JET_err Database Inconsistent?

Exchange server is a server application that supports storage for data and other Email objects in its database. Exchange server stores its user mailbox data into EDB format. The user mailbox (e-mails, calendars, tasks, events, and contacts etc.) data is stored in EDB file. Like other data files these files are also prone to corruption. The database can get corrupt due to:Dirty database shutdown, antivirus scanning, log file issues, and others. 

The corruption to data may be minor or severe. If the data corruption is minor then, it can be ignored at initial levels but must be cured before it becomes severe and your mailbox data turns unusable. 

Exchange Information Store corruption:

• Dirty Exchange Server shutdown is the most common reason that can lead The Information Store to crash while an attempt is being made to access the corrupt database. In this option the primitive step is to restore the database from an updated backup copy and then it can be re synchronized with the transaction logs.
• Information store can also fail to start due to hard disk crash or bad sectors present within it. Hard disk bad sectors turn the stored data unreadable that leads to problems while a database is mounted or a data access attempt is made.
• The Exchange database EDB files are prone to damage due to virus attack or some other malicious application which may lead to file header corruption. Once the EDB file header gets corrupt you cannot access the stored mailbox items.

If your information store gets corrupt then, it will prompt several error messages to you or will not start without any complaint or it can also lead to problems while sending or receiving mails “Error 4294966746: JET_errDatabaseInconsistent" is a common error message that indicates Exchange corruption. 

You will face several troubles while accessing corrupt Exchange Information Store such as:

• Information Store service couldn’t be started 
• If it’s already in running state, then it could not be stopped
• Exchange user will be unable to perform Email operations such as sending or receiving e-mails
• The information store just hangs up giving no response and the consume maximum of the CPU resources thus increases it usage and slow down the whole system.
• Clients cannot perform the Email operations such as retrieving and sending mails.

While the Exchange database gets corrupt then the user mailbox data turns out to be unusable or inaccessible. In such situation Exchange recovery is required.

If you are dealing with minor corruption of the database then it’s better to take a backup of the database so that if further damage occurs then you can restore the data from the backup and avoid nay data loss situation. After that run isinteg to fix database issues

In such situation you will try to resolve the problem by restarting the Exchange server but it will not help you.

The next possible steps are to restore the Exchange database from an offline backup. Then run Isinteg utility to perform database integrity check. But you can get the below error:

"Error 4294966746: JET_errDatabaseInconsistent"

You must carefully examine every event of the application event log so that you must be able to identify the errors occurred while the Information Store was being started.

eseutil /mh command can be used to Verify the integrity of both Priv.edb and Pub.edb then, repeat all the transaction log by running soft database recovery.

Cause of the Error:

• The error indicates that the Exchange Information store has got corrupt.
• The corruption can occur in public store or private store or both.

Solution to Fix the Error: 

1. The first step you need to do is to analyze the application event log. This will let you know about all the error message and events that were reported by the Exchange server while an attempt to start the he Information Store has been made.

2. Now check the integrity of Exchange databases

By running the eseutil /mh command for Priv.edb and Pub.edb files. 

An inconsistent database indicates a ‘Dirty Shutdown' state, it is not the necessary case that database has been corrupted always. If the transaction logs have not been committed then also, you have to face the above situation.

3. Perform soft database recovery to Replay the entire transaction log. Soft database recovery can be performed by running eseutil /r command.

4. Now, Run Run eseutil/ p command to perform hard database recovery. After executing the command, delete all the .chk and .log files. 

Check if this resolves the above problems or not. If you are able to work with your Exchange database then, congratulations you have recovered your Exchange data. But if the symptoms still persists then go to the next step. 

5. Defragment the database by running eseutil /d command

Run isinteg -pri -fix -test alltests command to fix database issues.

Note: 

After restarting the information store you need to Run the Directory Service/Information Store (DS/IS) Consistency Adjuster. It is used in disaster recovery scenarios.

Such common scenarios are:

• The folder couldn’t not be restored on the recovery computer due to some reason. 
• If the copy of Priv.edb or the Pub.edb files has been created on a system that has different name from that of the original server.  

If you can still access and work with the directory service and Exchange Server has been re-installed to a clean folder, then there is no need to run this tool.

Let’s summarize the above used commands in brief:

With the help of above command, your problem will be resolved. But if these commands fail to recover your Exchange data then, you would require some alternative Exchange recovery software. 

You can try some Exchange recovery software to regain access to your corrupt EDB database. These tools provide powerful feature that let you repair the corrupt EDB file data and restore the items within it. 

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How to resolve “OST synchronization Error 8004011D-526-80040115-0”?

As you know, OST files are the exact replica of all data on Exchange server. This data includes private as well as public Exchange folders. For each particular mailbox a separate OST file is created on the local user system. The OST file provides the facility to user for working offline.

If you are working in offline mode or there is no connection with Exchange then, any changes made while you were offline will be synchronized with the Exchange database, after the connection with Exchange server is reestablished.

Whenever you install Exchange client for the first time you will asked for confirmation to automatically create Exchange.ost file. If the Exchange client is already installed and you want to create an OST file then you can do so by using the Microsoft Exchange Server driver property page. From there, go to ‘Advanced’ tab and then click Offline Folder File Setting button. After that, follow the wizard steps to create a new OST file.

There can be several reasons when you will not be able to synchronize your OST file with Exchange. 

OST synchronization issues can occur:

• If there is some network connectivity issues  
• Or while Exchange Server down time
• Exchange server computer system unavailability
• Some malfunctioning with the Outlook application at your client machine
• Virus attach or some other malicious code running on the system.
• OST file corruption etc.

Fix Outlook Synchronization Errors & Restore Mail Items with this OST software

 

If the OST file couldn’t be properly synchronized with the Exchange data then you have to face several errors while you try to access the OST file data. One of the most common OST synchronization errors is 8004011D-526-80040115-0

In such situation, the OST file  goes in unusable and unworkable mode  and if you try to access it by Outlook email client and the OST file error 8004011D-526-80040115-0 can be prompted. 

If you try to retrieve the OST file contents from its backup then, the problem can be easily resolved but if you don’t have any such backup then, you need to run OST integrity check tool or some OST recovery utility.

OST synchronization error: 8004011D-526-80040115-0

While working with Microsoft Outlook version 2007, you can face the OST Synchronization issue due to any of the above discussed reasons. 

Consider the below case, the Outlook is configured in cache mode with Exchange Server, in which you can download e-mails from server by the offline folders. But while doing so if some network problem occurs then you will face troubles while synchronizing the OST file with Exchange.

When you open the email folder list of your Outlook application then you will find a 'Sync Issues' folder that contains the following error entries:

The error clearly indicates that there is some network connection problem. This error can also occur if there is some user-profile-related issue or if the OST file got corrupt.

Note: The Sync Issues folder stores all OST synchronization logs. The Outlook version before 2003 maintains this OST synchronization info in logs that were stored in the Deleted Items folder. 

The error entries in the log let you find the cause of the trouble and let you find a suitable resolution method.

Also, if you seek advanced help from your organization's support team or Microsoft Exchange server administrator then this information proves helpful for finding the trouble causing agent and way to resolve it. You can view this folder only from your system; it will not be visible from any other system because its contents are saved locally not copied to the server

Some primitive actions that you must take to resolve OST synchronization issue:

• Wait for sometimes to let the Exchange Server system come online again and resynchronize.
• Recreate the profile that is experiencing the problem.
• Run the OST integrity tool to resolve the synchronization issues.
• Restore the data, is a recent backup is available.

Consider another OST synchronization error log:

 In order to resolve the synchronization issue, try out the given fixes:

• Disable the anti-virus software installed on your system.
• Check whether the profile settings are correct or not. Also ensure that the default delivery destinations are MS Exchange service and mailbox.
• Try to synchronize the OST file using below steps:
• Go to 'Tool' option
• Click 'Synchronize'
• Select the option 'The Folder or All Folders'
• Re check you all network connections and devices for proper functioning. 

To solve the OST synchronization issues, sometimes you may require creating a new PST file and then, resynchronize it.

Follow the given steps to create a new PST file and resynchronize it:

1. Close all Microsoft applications. 

2. Go to Start> Search, and then select the option For Files or Folders. 

3. Select ‘All files and folders’ option in the search dialog box.

4. Now, type *.ost in the ‘All or part of the’ file name tab,

5. Select hard disk from the Look in list. Then, go to ‘More advanced options’ and check the checkbox ‘Include subfolders’

6. Click Search

You will find the.ost file in the Name column

The default OST file location is: C:\Documents and Settings\user name\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook (for Windows 2000, NT, XP and Windows Server 2003) 

Now, Right-click the .ost file and then click ‘Rename’ to rename it with a different file name extension.

7. Click Close to exit the open windows. 

8. Now, Start Outlook.

9. Go to the Tools menu and then click Send/Receive All. 

The above steps will create a new OST file. Later on, when connection with Exchange server is established it will be synchronized automatically.

If these steps don’t help you to resolve the OST synchronization issues then, run OST integrity check tool to resolve the problems. 

To know more about the OST integrity check tool go to my previous post entitled:

How to resolve Outlook error, “unable to expand the folder” due to OST corruption?

The tool let you fix the OST synchronization issues easily. However it fails in several situations such as if the OST file is severely corrupt. What will you do if the tool fails to resolve your OST file synchronization issues?

In such case you require some OST recovery solution that can efficiently fix the OST synchronization and corruption related issues. There is various OST recovery software available in market that let you extract the OST file data i.e. save it to PST file format. The exported PST file can be easily imported and accessed into Outlook. To know more in depth about OST file synchronization issues, read my upcoming articles. 

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Why to migrate from Lotus Notes to Exchange?

Microsoft Exchange is a reliable adaptable and cost-effective Email collaboration & communication platform. Its varied set of powerful features makes the task more mobile and ways for business domain users.   

With the release of newer versions it’s getting more popular among the users as it provides rich deployment options and productive collaboration features. Side by side the easy to user functionality and integrated data security and compliance policies makes it more admired popular among users. 

List of common Exchange features:

• Cloud network support:  

The Exchange provides you the facility to move to the cloud. It limits user disruptions from mailboxes over different environments and thus, provides easier calendar sharing, meeting scheduling regardless of the mailbox environment.

• Easy management and control

To provide powerful Exchange management and delegate tasks, Exchange provides the features such as:

• Data Loss Prevention (DLP) and site mailboxes for administrators to manage from the Exchange Administration Center (It is a web-based administration interface). 
• Role-based access control for those who don’t have full administrative rights (i.e. helpdesk and specialist users).

• Flexible and Reliable: It provides the better deployment options and flexibility to the administrator for an easy deployment according to the needs of organization and for users. It also provides you various hardware storage support options such as for Storage Area Networks as well as for desktop-class Direct Attached Storage. It provides reduced disk input/output per second for mailbox data and aids & mechanisms for protecting mailbox data from corruption.

• Mailbox archiving feature: 

It provides the user the facility to archive their mails by maintaining the specific mails into a primary mailbox and the rest into a separate In-Place Archive.

• Powerful retention policies: 

Exchange provides a better way for fulfilling your storage and compliance demands by offering flexible and powerful retention policies.

• Let you communicate across multiple devices: 
• It provides intuitive, touch-enabled uncluttered inbox. 
• It provides ‘Site mailboxes’ that let the user to work better in a team.
• Allow your users to: collaborate work on projects, share information among the team members.
• Exchange Provides document access & messaging and Co-authoring, document storage, and versioning is handled by SharePoint.
• Let you integrate Outlook and Outlook Web App. 

It allows you to easily access to web-based apps within both Outlook and OWA. This feature saves the user time to switch between apps as it let you access multiple apps with single sign in. 

• Better privacy and security:
• Protection from Email threats by strong filtering, anti spamming and anti phishing features.
• Provides better authorization by incorporating powerful internal compliance policies that prevents users sensitive Information protected from unauthorized access. One of such feature is Data Loss Prevention (DLP) that performs a deep content analysis while a data is being sent or received and prevents it from any policy violation or unauthorized access.DLP works on basis of PII and PCI and other authorization policies & regulatory standards
• Let the user perform run In-Place eDiscovery that is it provides a single interface to the user for working in compliance with different environments Exchange, SharePoint, and Lync.

• Support for industry-standard protocols that provides ‘Anywhere Access’ to the mailbox data and besides emailing it also other interactive Email communications features such as voice mail and instant messaging

Exchange vs. Lotus Domino/Notes: 

Microsoft Exchange is widely used because of various functionalities such as emailing, calendaring, and contacts management on computer, mobile or web, this provides you means for getting connected with each other and to keep your data synchronized. Comparatively Notes let you work in context and provides integrated collaboration functionalities such as emailing, calendaring, and contacts management, instant messaging, IBM Lotus Symphony etc as well as it let you access other Domino databases and applications. 

• Exchange 2010 provides creating a complete unified messaging solution for creating a complete unified messaging and is you see same case of for Lotus Notes then you have to install some additional IBM products in order to achieve the functionality. In this aspect, Exchange is preferred over Lotus Notes.

• With the help of Exchange you can integrate voicemail into OWA .It also provides support for SATA hard drives. Notes provides you some enhancements such as the functionality for the auto email address completion, mashing up the calendars, support for and receiving vCards. In spite of these newly added features ,  it still lacks somewhere due to the old look and feel as compared to Exchange

• Due to ease of use and easy GUI, the Windows operating is used in majority as compared to other operating systems. This is one of the factors that make Exchange popular because it is the best compatible mail server to be used with Windows; it provides awesome compatibility and support with Windows based systems. Though Lotus Notes provides a faster installation but Still Exchange wins in that aspect as the installation process is less complex and glitch free.

• If you look at cost factors Exchange provides better flexibility, and IT control as compared to Notes at the same cost. Exchange also provides better deployment choices as compared to Notes.

• Exchange provides native Storing, archiving, and retention capabilities but in case of Domino these are limited and require additional cost and complexity if needs to be enhanced. Exchange also provides support for storage hardware such as: DAS, SATA, and JBOD. Though, Domino provides Domino attachment object store (DAOS) but still it isn’t that much efficient as compared to Exchange.  

• With improvement in feature set from the previous versions of Exchange to newer, it has also achieved a higher performance graph. The performance has been gradually improved from version to version. Exchange 2010 is about 70% in high performing as compared to exchange 2007. This is not the case with Notes; it is there is no such point able performance improvement seen. 

• Exchange provides Innovative tools and capabilities for the global economy: Exchange provides the calendar sharing ability with users inside your organization as well with those who are outside your organization and also implies several permissions and securities so that no unauthorised or unintended access can be done to the data.  

• Exchange provides Built-in enterprise mobility to the users that is the user can access his mails form a truly universal inbox. Truly universal inbox stores the user mail data, SMS text messages, voice mail, and saved IM conversations. Network administrators have proper rights to decide which device is allowed or blocked to connect to the network. You need to purchase additional servers and client access licenses to implements this feature, everything is inbuilt within Exchange .Exchange also manages the mobile data security by implementing various data protection policies. In contrary, Lotus Notes only provides a basic mobile experience to the user.

• Exchange provides a better user experience by incorporating new capabilities such as:
• enhanced mail conversation view
• Speech-to-text transcription for voice mail
• Improved Messaging and restrictions for unintended e-mails with the help of MailTips to improve messaging efficiency and avoid accidental or unintended e-mails. 

Though, on basis of the above comparison we can’t conclude that Exchange or Notes, which one is better. It’s just a through comparison between the two Email applications. Each of the two mail clients has its own benefits and flaws. So, it would be wrong if I deny the use of one as compared to other. There can be some situations where Notes server can be better than Exchange or vice versa. The selection totally depends on personal needs and sometimes organization preferences. Under certain circumstances, you may require to perform a migration from Notes to Exchange or Exchange to Notes. So that, user can avail the functionalities of the other mail application.  

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How to fix Lotus Notes Error: “RRV Bucket is Corrupt”?

Lotus Notes email application is a proprietary of IBM. That is used for day by day Email -communication as well as Personal information management software. It manages all user mailbox data (e-mails data, calendar events, tasks, meeting and appointments etc.) in Lotus Notes database in .nsf file format. The Lotus Notes database files are prone to corruption due to several physical or logical errors.

The Most common factors that lead to Lotus Notes database corruption are:

• Dirty System shutdown

• Issues with the Operating System

• Any installed application that is incompatible with Lotus Notes

• Hardware failure

• Corruption of NSF file header

• Software malfunctioning

• Virus attack etc.

One more reason of the corruption in Lotus Notes data is damaged RRV bucket.

RRV bucket: The term RRV is abbreviated as Record Relocation Vector. This Notes table acts as a vector which points to the Lotus Notes Database and tells Notes where to find a specific NoteID.

Lotus Notes Error: RRV Bucket is Corrupt

When user tries to open emails in Lotus Notes then, RRV bucket locates the specified notes or object identifiers in the Lotus Notes database. But if the RRV bucket gets corrupt then, Notes cannot locate the specified object identifier.

In such situation the database fails to open any objects for creating new replica and an error message pops up on the screen: “RRV bucket is corrupt” .

There can be various probable situations when you may receive this error. Some to the common error scenarios are discussed below.

-> Sometimes, if the RRV bucket is severely damaged then, Notes client fails to open after showing the error message.

• Cause: This generally occurs due to corrupt bookmarks or icons.

Resolution: If you are facing the same problem then,

1. Rename the desktop5.dsk (R5) file
2. Rebuild it.

Note: Before performing the above steps don’t forget to backup the files.
If after renaming & rebuilding the desktop5.dsk (R5) file, you are still unable to start the Notes Client then, rename the bookmark.nsf file. If after logging in the client you find a corrupt icon on the workspace then, remove it, after that compact the workspace.

• Cause:  Issues in template based database

Resolution: Change the design of Lotus notes database on another E-mail server.

• Cause: database corruption

Resolution:
Follow the given steps to resolve the error:
1) Restore the data from recent database backup
2) R fixup -f", then "compact -c -i" command to recover the corrupt database.

Note: If the inbuilt Lotus repair doesn’t help you to repair the corrupt database then, you require some alternative Lotus Notes Recovery software to repair and recover the corrupt database items.

• Cause: Corruption of archived database

Resolution:

1. Restore the mailfile from a backup copy of the database.
2. After that create a new archive database with the help of backup copy.

Follow the given steps to create Archive Lotus Notes:
You should not let your file size exceed 500MB however organizations may set this criteria according to their preferences, some organizations limit the maximum file size up to 200MB.

You can check the data size by following the given steps:

• Go to File> Database> Properties.
• Go to File>Applications> Properties (For Lotus 8).
• Click the "i" tab.

There you can see the “Disk Space" which will indicate the amount of space currently used by the Lotus Notes data.

• After that determine your desired archive settings. According to which you can set the frequency for which Lotus Notes is too be archived and you can also decide whether all emails are to be archived or only the selected ones.
• Open the mail application
• Open mail settings by clicking Actions> Archive> Settings.
• Go to the Criteria tab and select the option "Default for last modified"(if it isn’t selected).
• Click "ok" and enable the Criteria.

Follow the given steps to schedule automatic archives:

• Open the mail application
• Open Actions> Archive> Settings.
• Open the Schedule tab and select “Schedule archiving”.
• Now select the desired time and day for automatic archive process to archive your files.

Follow the given steps to manually archive Lotus Notes.

• Open the mail application.
• Open the specific folder that is to be archived (you can also select a particular mail if required)
• Click Actions> Archive> Archive Now.
• Click ‘Yes’ to start the archiving process.

Follow the given steps to archive using the drag and drop method.
This is simply another way to manually archive Lotus Notes.

• Open the mail application
• Open the desired mail or folder to be archived.
• Select the desired message/messages and drag them to the required archive folder in the Navigation pane.

-> Whenever a user tries to open a mail file, he may receive the error:
“HTTP Web Server: Lotus Notes Exception - RRV bucket is corrupt. This mail file cannot be opened in both Notes and Web.”

In such situation ‘Design refresh or replace’ can help you resolve the error.

Sometimes, this error may also lead to troubles for the user while performing database administration tasks such as replication, refresh or replace design etc.
Resolution:
In such situation follow the given steps for resolving the error:

• Compact the database.
• Run the mail file convert task

Follow the given steps to compact the database:
Compacting a database, reduces the used space and thus makes the database less prone to corruption.

In Notes, if you compact a database, the Notes application first makes a temporary copy of the database, performs compaction and after that copies the changes back to the original database file. Sometimes, compaction process may fail if there isn’t enough space on the hard disk as the disk space is required to save the copy database while performing compaction.

Steps:
1. Open the database.
2. Go to File - Database - Properties.
3. Go to the Info tab.
4. Click % used.
5. Check the percentage specified there, if it is below 90% that means the unused space is 10%, thus you can compact he database.
6. Click Compact to compact the database.

Follow the given steps to convert mail files using the mail conversion utility:
1.Firstly shut down the router on the server console (i.e. Domino server on which the mail files are to be enabled.
While upgrading the mail files, the mails are stored in mailbox. Running this command will prevent the Domino from routing mail to the mail files while conversion is being done. To deliver the mail in mailbox you need to load the router again after the conversion has been done.
2.Run the load convert -e  command in mail conversion utility :
load convert -e maildirectory\mailfilename

Note: Here, maildirectory is the path of the mail subdirectory  containing the user's mail file. It is the path relative to the server's Domino data directory.
mailfilename is the user's mail file.

If you want to enable IMAP for all mail files in the \MAIL subdirectory then, the command will look like this.
load convert -e mail\*.nsf
3.Once you have enabled the mail files for IMAP on this server, and then Load the router with thehelp of load command.
 load router
4.Configure IMAP client software.
Note:  The mail conversion utility can be run on single mail file or on all mail files in a directory

If the RRV bucket isn’t severely corrupted then, you can recover the data with the help of Domino server database. You can resolve the minor corruption issues with the help of commands: Fixup, compact, updall and other replaced commands. But sometimes these tools fail to recover your Lotus notes data and the error keeps popping up .You are on safe side if you have recent backup of your Lotus Notes database, you can restore the data from the backup. But if don’t have recent backup of your data then, you need some powerful and efficient Lotus Notes repair utility to repair and recover the corrupt Lotus Notes Database.

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How to export and import data with the help of Exmerge?

Exchange server is a server program developed by Microsoft for the purpose to be used as mail server, calendaring software and contact manager. In Exchange directory you can see various database files: .edb,.log,..chk, .jrs etc. The .edb files are the Exchange data base files where an Outlook user mailbox data is stored. In EDB file the data is stored in B tree structure.

Microsoft provides Exmerge.exe if an administrator requires extracting user mailbox data from EDB database. With the help of this utility the user mailbox can be extracted from the Exchange database and then merge this data into the same mailboxes on another computer that is running Exchange Server.

• For The Exchange Server 4.0, 5.0, and 5.5 version of Exmerge, Go to Microsoft BackOffice Resource Kit, Second Edition. The Exchange Server 4.0, 5.0, and 5.5 version of this program only runs on Windows NT Server 4.0 or later.
• For The Exchange 2000 Server version, go to the Exchange 2000 Server CD in the Support\Utils\I386\Exmerge folder. The Exchange 2000 Server version of this program can only be run on Microsoft Windows 2000 Server or later versions.

If you want to run Exmerge utility:

• Firstly you need to copy the Exmerge.exe and Exmerge.ini files from the CD to on the server's hard drive in the ExchSrvr\Bin folder
• After that double click to run the .exe file from ExchSrvr\Bin folder.

These steps will make a copy of the source server data into personal folder (PST) files and then personal folders data is merged into the mailboxes on the destination server.

Additional Info: Exmerge can’t be used on servers that do not have a mailbox store such as front-end servers. Emerge can’t be used on a recovery storage group that is mounted on a front-end server.

The mailbox on the destination server must have the same mailbox name and the same container path. The Distinguished Name (DN) of the mailbox on the destination server is obtained by replacing the Organization and Site names in the DN of the mailbox on the source server with the Organization and Sites names of the destination server.

Exmerge program operates in two modes of operation: One Step and Two Step modes.
One Step mode: In this mode of operation, the data is copied from the source mailbox to a PST file and then merge the data in the PST file into the same mailbox on the destination server.

Two Step mode: In this mode the user can only copy data to PST files or merging data from PST files into a server.

C:\Exmerge.log contains all the history of the operations and the errors that are encountered during Exmerge operation.

Pre requisites before running Exmerge:

• Before running this program you must be logged on to Microsoft Windows NT with the Exchange Service account or the current Windows NT account must have permissions on all mailboxes selected to be merged.
• Before running Exmerge you must ensure that the computer which is running Exmerge.exe must have Microsoft Outlook Client and the Microsoft Exchange Administrator program installed. Do not install Outlook on the Exchange server as Microsoft does not support installing Exchange Server components and Outlook on the same computer

How to use Exmerge to recover a mailbox?

• First Download Exmerge
• Then install and configure Exmerge on your system so that the utility itself, running in the logon context of the user, can open the mailboxes itself.

You can set the appropriate rights on the recovery mailbox store by following the given steps:

• Log in your Exchange account with Exchange Administrator rights.
• With Exchange Server 2003 an Exchange Administrator has no rights to open mailboxes
• Go to the security tab of the mounted mailbox store in the recovery storage group.
• There you can find the Exchange Administrators Group with explicit deny rights for “send as” and “receive as”. This has to be overwritten by giving them full access and inheriting these rights down to each mailbox itself.

After installing and configuring Exmerge Now, you can run it:
Steps to recover a single mailbox:

• Start ExMerge and logon to your Exchange server.
• Now choose the user's mailbox that is to be recovered.
• Select the location of your .PST file on your computer to which the mailbox is to be exported.
• Then click next to export the user mailbox to extract to the selected PST

Note: You can also recover a single Mailbox Item. To do so, Import the PST file into Outlook Then, “drag & drop” the desired items from the PST file to the appropriate folder in Outlook.

How to import PST files back into Exchange server by using Exmerge:
Firstly, Place all of the PST files that you want imported into a single Folder after that follow the given steps:
1.First ensure that you have properly started the Exchange Information Service.
2.Login to your account with administrative privileges and all access permissions are properly set so that you can read the Exchange Mailboxes.
Steps to set the correct permissions are:
a.Create a Windows Security Group.
b.Add your current Windows account to this Windows Security Group.

Note: remember that your windows account  be having all Exchange administrator privileges as well as local administrator permissions that would be required on the Exchange server for mailbox merge process.

3.Select the target database from Ex

change System Manager and open its Properties.
4.Then, Go to Security tab and add the Exchange Recovery Administrators group and allow this group to have full access and Control permissions on the database.
5.Now Copy the Exmerge setup file (Exmerge .exe) as well as Exmerge.ini file to your Exchange Bin directory.
6.Run Exmerge.exe
7.Click Next
8.Choose Extract or Import (Two Step Procedure) Microsoft  Exchange mailbox merge wizard and Click Next
9.Choose Import data and click Next
10.Enter your exchange server name on the Destination Server page
11.You have three options on the Import Procedure tab(copy, merge, replace)
a.Copy : It will make  duplicates copies of data if it already exists
b.Merge: It will check for duplicates copies before copying the data again
c.Replace: It will replace the duplicates with data from the PST.
12.You can skip some folders by selecting only the desired ones from the Folders tab
13.You can also choose messages on basis of a date range from the  Dates tab 
14.Enter the server name then,  click Next
15.Now choose the desired to be imported in the Mailbox Selection option of  Microsoft  Exchange mailbox merge wizard
16.You can also choose the desired option from the Locale Selection(by default it is default English) and click Next
17.Browse to the folder containing your PST files and click Next
18.You can choose the 'Save Settings' option if you want to save the settings into Exmerge.ini file for later use.
19.Click Next. After the process is completed click Finish
20.You can check the Exmerge.log and ExMerge-(Thread[n]).log files to know if some errors encountered during the merge process.

Issues with Exmerge:

• If the permissions aren't set currently then, it may fail to export data. To fix this issue you need to recreate a new service account.
• If Information store is dismounted then, it may fail to export data
• If the User account associated with the mailbox is disabled then it may fail to export data
• Less disk space can also cause issues while saving the exported data into the .PST files.
• If the mailbox size is more than 2GB then, it may fail to export data
• If the mailbox items are corrupted then, ExMerge cannot export those corrupt items.

Though, you can easily extract data from an EDB file to PST format with the help of ExMerge but sometimes, it fails to perform an efficient EDB to PST conversion. In such case you will require some powerful and proficient EDB to PST conversion software that provides you an easy to use interface and powerful algorithms that let you accomplish the EDB to PST conversion process within few minutes.

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How to import Eudora MBOX files into Outlook?

There are a lot of mail clients that supports MBOX mail file format for storing their mailbox data. Some most popular MBOX supporting clients are Thunderbird, Entourage, Spicebird, Pocomail, AppleMail, Eudora, Mulberry and SeaMonkey.

In this article, I want to highlight some of the Eudora mail clients, its mailbox structure and ways to migrate Eudora MBOX files into Outlook.

The mailbox structure in Eudora is similar to Unix MBOX format. In Eudora mbox file, the first line of each email message begins with a ‘From’ field (without colon) and sender’s email contains the string ‘???@???'
Eudora (for Windows and Mac) maintains a separate file “.toc”. It’s a binary file that stores the Information such as:

• Whether or not a message has been read?

A read message is indicated by an R in the Status header.

• A message has been downloaded or not?

A downloaded message is indicated by an O in the Status header.

• What is the priority level of a message?

A message priority is set between 1 to 5 where 1 is used for the highest priority and 5 for the lowest one.

• What is the status of a message? i.e.  Answered, Re-directed, or Forwarded.

Answered: In-Reply-To header is used in corresponding to the Message-ID header of the other to indicate that one message is a response to another.

How does Eudora handle attachments?
Eudora uses a user-configurable directory to save the attachments, before saving them it first extracts them and then converts and put a line Attachment converted: filepath in the message body.

Directory structure
The Eudora Mac mail directory structure is just like the file system structure. The Eudora Mac mail (Windows versions) uses suffixes to distinguish the mailbox files and mailbox folder.  '.fol' suffix is used for mailbox folders and ‘.mbx’suffix is used for mailbox files.  The Windows 3.x versions of Eudora uses an 8-character DOS file names for naming the folders. Each directory that contains mailboxes has a 'dscmap.pce' that keeps record of all this folder hierarchy.

How to move and back up files in Eudora (Win)?
The Eudora files contains: Mailboxes, Spelling Dictionary files, Folders, Address Books, Recipient List, Signatures, Filters, Junk Training file, Settings, Stationery, Embedded, Attachments etc. If you want to move the Eudora data files from one computer or to another directory.

• Before moving or copying any Eudora files is it required that you completely Exit Eudora
• If you are copying the backup from a mass storage device then 
• Copy the entire Eudora Data directory (where your eudora.ini file is located) from the source machine onto the destination machine (or storage device).
• For Eudora 6.2 or newer:
• Go to Help> About Eudora menu to know the location of Eudora data directory
• For versions older than 6.2:
• You can search the directory using Windows Search.
• For Eudora (Windows 2000/XP)
• The default program location is under Program Files and the data files are kept within "User's Application Data folder"
• The location for “User's Application Data folder": "C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Application Data\Qualcomm\Eudora".
• Paste the directory from the source machine (or storage device) to the destination machine and maintain the same directory path.

For Windows 2000 & XP Users:
The default program location is under program files, and the data files are kept within "User's Application Data folder".

The location for “User's Application Data folder":  "C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Application Data\Qualcomm\Eudora",
Note: here "username" is the User's login name.
Copy the Eudora files from old Eudora directory to new one.

How to import MBOX files into Outlook?
MBOX files cannot be imported directly in to Outlook or Outlook Express.
For that you require an intermediary such as Eudora.
1.Firstly, install the Eudora (for Windows).
2.Rename your mbox file by appending extension ".mbx” extension ex: rename "InboxMBOX" as "InboxMBOX.mbx".
3.Go to "Application Data," >Tools menu>"Folder Options," >"View," and select "Show hidden files and folders."
Now move the renamed file to the directory location:  C:\Documents and Settings\<user>\Application Data\Qualcomm\Eudora
4.Open Eudora application and double-click the mbox file name this will accomplish creation mailbox creation task. After that quit Eudora.
5.Open Outlook Express, then, go to File -> Import -> Messages...

6.From the Select a program option, choose “Eudora Pro or Light (through v3.0)", and then, click Next.

7.Browse the directory where you have moved the mbox file, click OK.
8.Click Next, then Next and then Finish.
9.This will import the mailbox data into Outlook Express. You can view the imported mailbox in the "Local Folders" section of Outlook Express.

The above steps will successfully import the data in Outlook Express.

How to Import data from Outlook Express to Outlook?

Importing data from Outlook Express to Outlook XP/2003/2007
Once you have imported the MBOX file into outlook express, after that you can import it from outlook express to outlook. Follow the given steps to import the mbox from Outlook Express to Microsoft Outlook:
1.Open Outlook application ( XP/2003/2007)
2.Go to File -> Import and Export.

3.Choose the option "Import Internet Mail and Addresses," and click Next.

4.from the options choose "Outlook Express 4.x, 5",

5.Select the checkbox "Import Mail" and click Finish.

6.The above steps will import the MBOX file mailbox data under "Outlook Today - [Personal Folders]."

Outlook 2010
After importing the file into Outlook Express with the procedure described above, you can import it to Outlook. Follow the given steps to import the mbox from Outlook Express to Microsoft Outlook 2010.
1.Open Outlook  application
2.Go to  File tab
3.Click Open. After that Click Import
4.Select the option "Import Internet Mail and Addresses," and click Next.
5.Choose "Outlook Express 4.x, 5.x, 6.x or Windows Mail" from the given options.
6.Select the check box “Import Mail” and click Next.
7.The above steps will import the mbox mailbox data under "Outlook Today - [Personal Folders]."

As there is no direct method to import the MBOX files to Outlook. Thus, with the help of above described procedure you first need to import the mbox files to Outlook Express, after that the mailbox data can be imported from Outlook express to Outlook.

You need to use Outlook Express as an intermediary, if you want to import mbox file to Outlook and the procedure also takes your lots of effort and time. In order to save your time and effort you will require some software that can make the Eudora to MBOX migration process easier. You can find MBOX to PST converter software that can efficiently convert the MBOX mailbox data to PST file format which can be easily imported and accessed into Outlook.

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