Recovering a Deleted Folder from Outlook 2003

[Supra_Edd]

One of my users deleted a e-mail folder from his Outlook about 2 weeks ago. This folder is not in his deleted box or the recover delected items area.
All e-mail items should be archived. So should I be able to find this folder with EV? I can restore individual e-mails easily, but can't find an option for folders.

Can anyone help?

Thanks,

edd...

[MichelZ]

Edd

You should be able to located the folder in archive explorer.

Cheers

[Supra_Edd]

oh right, i click on that and get a 'failed to perform the search request' i guess thats the next problem to get past.

Thanks MichelZ.

[MichelZ]

Probably your index is failed for this archive.
Could you have a look at the properties of the archive -> indexing in the vault administration console?

Make sure you choose "update" and not "rebuild" when you try to remediate.

Cheers

[DJ_Kim]

As Michelz mentioned, go and check the index status.

Also its good to find out how many got the index issue from Console - Archive - Right click - Index volume - Find any failed, rebuild, or offline.

Joon

[Aaron_Mears]

It sounds like the end-user did a hard delete (shift+delete).  If you have the deleted item retention configured in Exchange you will be able to add the "DumpsterAlwaysOn" registry key so that you can perform a deleted item recovery from any Outlook Folder.  http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa997155.aspx

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Exchange\Client\Options 

DWORD DumpsterAlwaysOn, Value = 1

Apply this key on the end user PC that did the delete, or from your admin workstation that has full access to the mailbox.  Then you will see the "Recover Deleted Items" option within all folders, not just "Deleted Items".

You could also do an ExMerge recovery (Ex2003) or Export-Mailbox (Ex2007) to recall this data.

This would bring back the folder as it was in Exchange, including the contents.

Aaron

[Supra_Edd]

hello, thankyou for the reply. sorry for my lack of knowledge here, but I cant find an update option only a rebuild option. I think i must be looking in the wrong place. I click on Archives - Exchange Mailbox - "users mailbox" and on the Advanced tab i only get a rebuild index option?

Thanks,

Edd...

[Supra_Edd]

Hello, none flag up as failed, rebuilding or offline. so i guess thats a good thing.

[Supra_Edd]

Hello, thanks for this I will check it out. Im pretty sure they didnt do a hard delete as it turned up in their 'recover deleted items' area. but its in there thats corrupt and wont restore. which is why im trying to find the folder/emails on the EV. But I will still check out the MS solution.

Regards,
Edd...

[MichelZ]

Edd

Did you check the Index?
Can you access Archive Explorer now?

Cheers

[Supra_Edd]

I MichelZ, sorry for my lack of knowledge here, but I cant find an update option only a rebuild option. I think i must be looking in the wrong place. I click on Archives - Exchange Mailbox - "users mailbox" and on the Advanced tab i only get a rebuild index option?

Thanks,

Edd...

[MichelZ]

There should be an "Index Volume" Tab, where you can right click on a Volume:

[Supra_Edd]

brilliant thankyou. am updating it now.

[Supra_Edd]

right I'm still getting the same 'failed to perform search request' etc etc.
I remember a while back I used a tool to update/rebuild the archives by using the Archive ID from the users properties. I cant find this tool now as I have forgotten the name, has anyone got a clue as to what it may be?

Thanks again,

Edd...

[MichelZ]

Do you need any more assistance with this? If a post solved your problem, can you mark that as the Solution? Thanks & Regards Michel

[Supra_Edd]

sorry guys I ahve been away for a couple of weeks.

The folder doesnt show up in the Archive Explorer. I've check the status on the Index Volume and all seems ok.

Once again I am lost on things to do. Is there a way to search for a folder name anywhere? Rather than an item inside that folder?

Regards,

Edd...

[John_Chisari]

You can use http://evservername/enterprisevault/search.asp?advanced=3 = it will give u the option to search for a folder.

Other thing you can do, is an export of the archive from the Vault Console, either to PST or back to the mailbox - you can either do the whole archive or just that 1 folder you are looking for.

One question though, how do you know that all the items in the folder were archived?  I think the best option is to restore an Exchange backup and recover the folder that way - that way you know you will get everything including non-archived items.

[Supra_Edd]

I may be looking in the wrong place, but when using your link and clicking Browse next to the folders option it doesnt allow me to expand into subfolders, strange!

I dont fancy restoring 2.5tb of exchange data! So it looks like the export function is the next thing for me to try. Sorry to ask but how do I do this? I'm in the vault console and have searched in the help for export but nothing comes up :(

Regards,

Edd...