The Information store, which is the heart and the soul of Microsoft Exchange Server, is quite prone to corruption. Defective hard disk controller, improper exchange server shutdown and database reaches 16 GB limit are few of the common reasons behind information store corruption. Corruption typically involves any one of the EDB files (Priv.edb or Pub.edb) located in the Exchsvr\Mdbdata folder on the server. Exchange Server tries to indicate the inconsistencies in the information store through a number of error messages. In such situations, it becomes quite essential for you to take appropriate Exchange server recovery measures.
Consider a scenario, wherein, you experience inconsistency in the Exchange 2000 information store in the Jet database which is indicated by event ID 448. The following event is logged in the application log in Windows Event Viewer with a description similar to the following:
Date: Date
Source: ESE
Time: Time
Category: Database Corruption
Type: Error
Event ID: 448
User: N/A
Computer: ServerName
Description: Information Store (2412) Data inconsistency detected in table Msg of database E:\Program Files\exchsrvr\mdbdata\priv4.edb (0,524957). For more information, click http://search.support.microsoft.com/search/?adv=1
In the above event, when you start Exchange Server 2000, all the services related to it may start, but no mailbox store will mount.
And, if you try to verify the integrity of the database by running eseutil / g command (i.e. eseutil /g “c:\program files\exchsrvr\mdbdata\priv1.edb), you may receive an error message saying:
“The Database is corrupted.”
Cause
As stated in the above error message, the database has become corrupt. Corruption might have occurred if there is a defective hard disk or defective hard disk controller, if an anti-virus program is scanning Exchange server folders or if there is a corrupt restores operation.
Resolution
In order to isolate the issue, you can observe the following Exchange recovery steps:
- Replace the faulty hardware, update the hardware system files or repair the file system to prevent any future errors
- If information store is running, use the Merge program (Exmerge) to export your data to PST files
- If the database is running, you can also try and move the mailboxes to another store, delete the affected database, create a new one, and then move all the mailboxes back
- If the information store doesn’t mount, then restore the database from an online backup before the errors appear in the application log
- If you do not have a backup, try to address the problem using the following steps
- Repair the database by using the eseutil / p command
- Perform an online defragmentation by using eseutil / d command
- Run the Isinteg -fix command
If you are still unable to resolve corruption issue, then use a third-party Exchange Server recovery software.
Stellar Phoenix Mailbox Exchange Recovery is an advanced software which repairs corrupt EDB files and recovers mailboxes as separate PSTs which can be directly imported in Outlook. Compatible with Exchange Server 5.5, 2000, 2003, 2007 and 2010, this Exchange recovery software also performs recovery of deleted mailboxes.
