How to restore Exchange 2003 mailbox with BE 10d

[BCT-Tech]

We need to recover 2 mailboxes from a LTO3 tape backup with Backup Exec 10d.  The Exchange Server (2003) has long been decomissioned and is not accessible.

We have a Windows 2003 Server and BE 10d installed, and the LTO tape drive working.

What are the steps needed to extract the 2 mailboxes?

Thanks!

[pkh · Accepted solution]

You would need a server with Exchange 2003 to recover the mailboxes.  These mailboxes cannot be recovered using a newer version of Exchange.  This is a Microsoft limitation.

If you have BE 2014 which is the latest version, then you could restore the mailboxes to PST's, thus eliminating the need for an Exchange server.

[VJware]

PST restores would be possible only if this was a GRT enabled backup. And if the backup was GRT enabled, then pkh's suggestion of restoring to .pst would be the easiest option.

[CraigV]

...there is another way around this...duplicate the Information Store to disk to get the *.edb file. Once done, use an application "Kernel for Exchange" to pull the information out of the *.edb into a *.pst.

It works well, and I've used it in the past before restoring to PST came with BE 2012 (which I never bothered to install) or where I couldn't do a straight restore to Exchange with BE.

Thanks!

[BCT-Tech]

How do I duplicate the Information Store to disk?

Thanks.

[CraigV]

10d SHOULD be the same as the link below, just check it out and see:

http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH24544

You would want to duplicate existing backup sets.

Thanks!

[BCT-Tech]

I tried duplicating the information store to disk, with 3 different tapes. It would write some data to the recovery folder, then error out saying "the storage device has failed".

I uninstalled BE11d and installed BE 2014. I have tried twice now to restore the Exchange data. It sees the mailbox store, but errors out with "Connection to the restore target has been lost".

I have installed all the lastest patches to 2014.

Any ideas?