Part 1: Different ways to recovery E-mails from backup when mailbox on Exchange 2000, Exchange 2003 and Exchange 2007

Scenario 1:

When you want to restore a mailbox or emails for user mailbox whose mailbox is moved to different database or server since the backup set which was taken.

Resolution:

Method 1:

Consider you have restored the database into Recovery Storage Group and then tried merging to it failed with some error as Mailbox was move to different store or server since backup set was taken.

1. Move mailbox back to original store.
   

   If you don't remember the store location where this mailbox at time of the backup. You can follow below simple steps to find the store.
   

   1. Start ADSI Edit.
      
   2. Locate the RSG's Mailbox store. To do so, expand Configuration Container [ YourServerName . YourDomainName . YourTopLevelDomain ] , expand CN=Configuration,DC= YourDomainName ,DC= YourTopLevelDomain , expand CN=Services , expand CN=Microsoft Exchange , expand CN= YourOrganizationName , expand CN=Administrative Groups , expand CN= Your Administrative Group , where Your Administrative Group is the administrative group that contains the storage group), expand CN=Servers , expand CN= YourServerName , expand CN=InformationStore , and then click CN= Recovery Storage Group .
      
   3. In the right pane, right-click the Recovery Storage Group database object, and then click Properties .
      
   4. In the Select which properties to view list, click Both .
      
   5. In the Select a property to view list, click msExchOrigMDB.
      

The value of msExchOrigMDB is nothing but the store where mailbox was reside at the time of the backup. So you move the mailbox on this store again to perform the merge task or follow method 2:

Method 2:

If you don't want to move the mailbox to original store then you could follow this steps. Modify the msExchOrigMDB attribute on the Recovery Storage Group database to point to the mailbox store that you moved the mailbox to. Modify the msExchOrigMDB attribute on the Recovery Storage Group database to point to the mailbox store that you moved the mailbox to.

1. Start ADSI Edit.
   
2. Locate the mailbox store that you moved the mailbox to. To do so, expand Configuration Container [ YourServerName . YourDomainName . YourTopLevelDomain ] , expand CN=Configuration,DC= YourDomainName ,DC= YourTopLevelDomain , expand CN=Services , expand CN=Microsoft Exchange , expand CN= YourOrganizationName , expand CN=Administrative Groups , expand CN= Your Administrative Group , where Your Administrative Group is the administrative group that contains the storage group that you want to modify), expand CN=Servers , expand CN= YourServerName , expand CN=InformationStore , and then click CN= YourStorageGroup .
   
3. In the right pane, right-click the database object, and then click Properties .
   
4. In the Select which properties to view list, click Both .
   
5. In the Select a property to view list, click distinguishedName .
   
6. Right-click the value that is in the Value(s) box, and then click Copy .
   
7. Click Cancel .
   
8. Locate and then click the Recovery Storage Group database object in the CN=Configuration,DC= YourDomainName ,DC= YourTopLevelDomain container.
   
9. In the right pane, right-click the Recovery Storage Group database object, and then click Properties .
   
10. In the Select which properties to view list, click Both .
    
11. In the Select a property to view list, click msExchOrigMDB.
    
12. Click Clear .
    
13. Right-click an empty area of the Edit Attributes box, and then click Paste .
    
14. Click Set , and then click OK.
    
15. Quit ADSI Edit.