Windows Server 2008 Recovery

Robozilla · 8 Dec 2011 at 08:27

Hello all,
i'm not an experienced Admin and recently i inherited a server running 2008 with exchange 2010. The server was protected by a mirror array but for whatever reason every single drive in it has failed simultaneously.
I'm left with a task of recovering data from the server, which so far has been pretty easy however my main problem comes to the exchange database which is accessible on one of the hard drives (and intact, it seems) however i'm rebuilding exchange on a new server but really need the mail and calendar items stored on that one hard drive. As i'm going to set up new users and new mailboxes for everyone, i was wondering if anyone has any experience in restoring from an .EDB on a different drive. There's loads of EDB to PST tools knocking about and that sounds like it would be an ideal solution really as i can just import it back into the users outlook directly. Anyone had experience with this EDB to PST stuff? or can recommend an alternative course of action?

Robozilla · 8 Dec 2011 at 09:44

I can access some of the files on one of them, the rest is sat on bad sectors etc. Luckily, the EDB is unharmed and i've copied it to a working drive.

Robozilla · 8 Dec 2011 at 17:42

It was a bespoke server. Nothing special about it, it only provides e-mail for about 15 people and active directory services for about 5. I've tried lucid8 digiscope which clearly does what i need it to but costs an absolute fortune. I was hoping for a free solution but there doesn't seem to be one.

Robozilla · 9 Dec 2011 at 10:33

Hi Nikumba, i think you hit the nail on the head and that's exactly what i'm doing right now. I'm having to reinstall windows (yes, windows was installed on the same drive as the exchange server..urgh). Do i just set it up with the same domain name, then install exchange as before? Will that even work though as all the active directory items will not correspond with what's in the exchange DB as windows will be freshly installed?