Backup and Recovery: Using
ExMerge to Extract Mail from a
Corrupted Mailbox Store

 

Posted: May 08, 2002

If a mailbox store becomes corrupted, you can use the Exchange 2000 Server Mailbox
Merge (ExMerge.exe) tool to recover all uncorrupted data. If you can start the
Information Store service, you can run ExMerge.exe against the corrupted mailbox store.
ExMerge copies and transfers uncorrupted data for all users on the corrupted mailbox
store to personal folder (.pst) files. After you run ExMerge, you can reset the Information
Store service and then import the .pst files into an undamaged mailbox store.

ExMerge uses a process that helps you recover all uncorrupted data even if individual
mailbox folders contain corrupted messages. Usually, ExMerge extracts all messages in a
mailbox folder collectively to minimize remote procedure call (RPC) traffic. However, if
a particular message causes an error, ExMerge automatically skips that message and then
begins individually copying the messages that remain in the folder. While copying
messages individually does increase network traffic, it also allows the tool to bypass the
corrupted data. After ExMerge finishes copying each message individually in the mailbox
folder containing the corrupted message, the tool then resumes copying messages
collectively in other mailbox folders until another error occurs.

The ExMerge tool and its documentation are available on the Exchange 2000 compact
disc in the following folder: SUPPORT\UTILS\I386\EXMERGE.

 

This tip is provided by the Microsoft Exchange User Education team.
For additional information, see the Microsoft TechNet Exchange Web site.