Recover lost exchange server data

[Michael_Rychter]

Please excuse the long posting but I want to give the fullest data to aid diagnosis to obtain technical suggestions.

The client had a three year old SBS2000 server using BEWS V8.x backing up daily. The usual error message was "completed with some files missed." These were usually Windows files and/or antivius files - so we never worried about the message. We once had to restore data from the tape and this was done unremarkably so we had a confidence that the missed files had no consequences of note.

The server hard drive crashed and we installed a new SBS2003 hardware with mirrored drives and Windows operating system. The SONY AIT1 tape drive was transferred to the new server.

The original hard drive was a Seagate 80gb IDE partitioned into two drives (C: and D:) and we "think" Exchange was spread over the two drives. The client has now submitted the failed drive to a laboratory to get a quote to recover the drive contents. We are not confident of this process.

The client's main applications are a DOS accounting system, Exchange Server, MSFT Word and Excel.

BEWS V8.x would not install on the new operating system (SBS2003).

We downloaded and installed the trial version of BEWS V10d off the Veritas Downloads website and installed to the new server.

The last good tape (31 Octrober 2006) was Initialised then Cataloged successfully.

We were able to recover the client's accounting and document data speedily and without any drama at all.

We could not recover the Exchange mail. We have some software tools (Datatrack Power Tools) and would be able to recover the historic emails if we could retrieve the MDBDATA folder and contents.

When we peruse the folder structure of the tape catalog we can see the two hard drive partitions and can drill down the folder structure.

We can locate the MDBDATA folders (one in each partition) but they are empty.

We can't see a selection process to select the exchange server for recovery athough we can see an option to restore exchange to a new location.

Initialising and cataloging older tapes gave us similar results to the latest tape.

Our suspicion is that Exchange Server has not been captured by the tape.

Is there a technical sheet detailing the process of recovering Exchange data off a tape - we now need to care that we don't overwrite the new Exchange Server data.

One other suggestion is to rebuild the old server machine with SBS2000 and BEWS8.x and try to recover the data that way. We are reluctant to go down that path because we have no confidence that the Exchange data is actually on the tapes.

In the meantime the client now has a new server running SBS2003 and his business has resumed running albeit without any historical data in the Exchange Server. The recovery of the Exchange Server data is considered to be a high priority.

Any technical help would be much appreciated.

Michael Rychter (Sydney, Australia)

[Ken_Putnam]

If the previous install was only backing up flat files, then indeed, no Exchange data was ever backed up.

If, however, the Exchange Agent was used, and the stores were backed up "hot", you should have an option in the restore pane for them,

BUT I'm not sure that you could restore E2K stores to a E2K3 system in the first place.

[Michael_Rychter]

We are not even seeing the .LOG files that should be present if Exchange is not being backed up.

As to >>>I'm not sure that you could restore E2K stores to a E2K3 system in the first place<<<< Agreed but if we restored to a different location, wouldn't that facilitate recovery in the W2K3 environment?

Is there a technical sheet to recover Exchange to a new OS?

I looks like we should try to rebuild the old server and restore from the tape and see if Exchange restores. Presently, I'm of the opinion that Exchange AND log files have not been captured by the tape.

Do you agree?