recreating Mailboxes after edb files got corrupted.

Question

Hi,

we have exchange 2010 setup with client access and mailbox servers. the storage where mailbox databases were placed got corrupt and there is no backup of mailboxes or EDB files are available. the user mailbox’s list is available in CAS server. the end users are running outlook in cashed mode. so they have all old emails either in Ost or Pst files.

i need to know, can we re populate these existing mailboxes to new mailbox database file at mailbox role server?

i would like to know that if there is a way to rebuild deleted mailboxes from exchange LOG files. even if we can recover blank mailboxes with no data, it will be fine.

moreover

3. as stated earlier that the EDB files are gone and no backup. i am more willing to recreate same mailboxes deleted earlier so that users can connect to exchange without reconfiguring outlook profile. mail data i can recover/copy from user pst files.

Answer 1

Hi @kashif Nazeer,

Welcome to the Microsoft Q&A platform!

I’m sorry to hear about the issues you’re facing with your Exchange 2010 setup. Let’s break down your queries and see how we can address them:

1. Repopulating Existing Mailboxes to a New Mailbox Database

You can repopulate existing mailboxes to a new mailbox database on the mailbox role server. Here are the steps you can follow:

1. Create a New Mailbox Database: Use the Exchange Management Shell to create a new mailbox database:

      New-MailboxDatabase
   

   Mount the new database:

      Mount-Database
   

2. Move Mailboxes to the New Database: Use the cmdlet to move mailboxes from the old database to the new one:New-MoveRequest

      Get-Mailbox
   

3. Rebuilding Deleted Mailboxes from Exchange LOG Files

Rebuilding deleted mailboxes directly from Exchange log files is not straightforward. However, you can try the following approach:

1. Create a Recovery Database: Use the Exchange Management Shell to create a recovery database:

      New-MailboxDatabase
   

2. Restore the Database: If you have log files, you can try to bring the database to a clean shutdown state and mount it as a recovery database. Unfortunately, without the EDB files, this might not be possible.
3. Recreating Mailboxes

To recreate the same mailboxes so that users can connect without reconfiguring their Outlook profiles:

1. Recreate Mailboxes: Use the Exchange Management Shell to recreate the mailboxes:

      New-Mailbox
   

2. Import PST Files: Use Outlook or a third-party tool to import the PST files back into the newly created mailboxes.

Additional Resources

For more detailed steps and troubleshooting, you can refer to the following resources:

• Manage mailbox databases in Exchange Server
• Move mailboxes in bulk or one by one to another database
• Recover and restore a mailbox from Exchange Server 2010

Please feel free to contact me if you have any queries.

Best,

Jake Zhang

Answer 2

Hi Kashif,

As mailbox databases are corrupt and there are no backups available, here are the answers of all your questions-

1. Yes, you can recreate the existing mailboxes in a new mailbox database. Since you have a list of user mailboxes from the CAS server, you can use the Exchange Management Shell to recreate each mailbox. The command would look something like this:

New-Mailbox -UserPrincipalName user@domain.com -Alias useralias -Database "NewMailboxDatabase" -DisplayName "User Display Name"

2. Since the end users have their emails cached in .OST files then you can convert them into PSTs. Users can open their .PST files in Outlook and copy the emails to the new mailboxes without having to reconfigure their Outlook profiles.
3. Unfortunately, directly rebuilding deleted mailboxes from Exchange LOG files is not feasible. The LOG files do not store mailbox content directly; they track changes to the database. If the mailboxes were deleted and no backups exist, the only way to recover the data would be through the .OST.
4. If you prefer to create the new mailboxes as empty ones (with no data), you can do so by simply recreating the mailboxes without importing any data.
5. To avoid reconfiguring Outlook profiles, ensure that the newly created mailboxes have the same email addresses and user principal names as the previous ones.

6.You can use Eseutil to repair corrupt edb file.

Let me know if you need further assistance.