Is it possible to delete individual messages in Exchange from backups?

[Technosapien]

Hello, smart people.

I looked for a solution in the forums, but only found a note that "workflow for this has not yet been developed".

Sorry if my ignorance is showing, but is it possible to delete individual e-mail messages in Exchange from backups?

Environment: Exchange 2003, Windows Server 2003, BE v12.5, backups to tape

Feel free to begin making fun of me...now.

Thanks in advance.

[pkh · Accepted solution]

No. It is not possible to delete individual e-mails from a backup.  Even if this is possible, it is the equivalent of shredding a document.  There are legal implications when you shred a document or delete an e-mail.

[Technosapien]

Thank you for your reply. If it is technically not possible, I can live with that. However, since Symantec has an open frame (not sure of nomenclature) for this task, I think that it may be possible. As far as legal implications are concerned, I sincerely thank you for your opinion, but my attorney said that what I am attempting has zero legal or regulatory implications. I asked her before I agreed to attempt the task because I had similar concerns.

Thanks again.

[pkh]

It is technically impossible and I don't think there is any attempt/effort to implement this feature.

In any case, the smallest granularity is the mailbox, not individual messages.

my attorney said that what I am attempting has zero legal or regulatory implications.

I have you have this in writing.

[Colin_Weaver]

You cannot delete components friom with a backup set whether that be e-mails, individual files, sharepoint documents etc - there is no way to do it.

You have to delete the whole backup set (Which of course has other implications)

Also agree with pkh if you work in any kind of industry that has to have legal traceability of all communcaitions (which is more or less any industry where money/producs changes hands) then there are large legal issues with deletions like this.

Finally we currently have no plans to allow this kind of functionality.

[Technosapien]

LOL. Yes, I have it in writing. (She's my sister.) Thank you for your concern.

Perhaps "deleted" was too strong a word. What has happened is that a popular employee passed away suddenly, and they want to remove all messages from him from backups so that they do not get restored during a restore procedure. All of his messages are going to be Exmerged out of the live Exchange datastore and saved as their own archive.

The issue is that like I said, he was very popular (and also very funny), so every day at least once per day, someone will come across something funny that he said, and productivity dives as they commiserate. Someone told me that he is more disruptive in death than he was when alive, and that apparently speaks volumes.

The company is not bound by any retention regulations, and if this were for any other reason, like the CEO wanting to remove "personal communications" for "personal" reasons, I would have stayed clear of this entirely.

I think that if they really want this done that I am going to have to set up a "stunt" domain and Exchange server, restore to the stunt Exchange server. remove the messages, and run a new backup, replacing the current backup. Considering that they want to do this for more than the last 12 months, I think they will find this too much effort (especially with your kind replies to show them), and will just deal with the popularity of their missing man. (Which I think they should anyway.)

Thanks again. I appreciate you taking the time to respond to my inquiry.

[Technosapien]

Thank you, Mr. Weaver, very much for your reply. You have answered my question well.