How to Recover corrupted Exchange Server Mailboxes?

Recover corrupted Exchange Server Mailboxes

Anuraag Singh | Modified: October 27, 2020 | Exchange Mailbox, Exchange Server, Recovery | 6 Minutes Reading

In this article, we will discuss the reasons of corruption occur in the Exchange mailboxes and how to recover corrupted Exchange Server mailboxes easily by using the manual and automated solution.

We Know that Microsoft Outlook users use MS Exchange account and when the Outlook application is synchronized with the Exchange server all the mailbox data items such as emails, contacts, notes, calendar are synchronized with it automatically.

Microsoft Exchange server stores the all the email data in EDB file also known as Exchange database file. There are several reasons for the corruption of EDB mailboxes. In case of the corrupted database corruption the Exchange server can also disturb the client-server behavior. Due to this problem, the Microsoft Outlook may not be able to synchronize properly.

Before going to the solution part which recover corrupted Exchange Server Mailboxes, first we will discuss why the user has to face the Exchange server mailbox corruption issue. Let’s start…

Reasons for Exchange Database Corruption

Many times the user has to face the EDB file corruption issue.  Any type of damage or corruption ocurs in Exchange database file may lead to loss of data in Exchange Server.

Data loss cause immense inconvenience to the users. That’s the reason the user wants to know how to repair corrupted exchange server mailboxes. Here are the several reasons of EDB file corruption issue.

  1. Virus infection or any kind of Malware attack on the computer.
  2. Outlook and exchange connection issues.
  3. In the case of Exchange, database objects are missing.
  4. Presence of The bad sectors is responsible.
  5. Dirty shutdown / Improper system shutdown.
  6. Malfunctioning of the system applications.

Common Error Which leads to Exchange Database Corruption Problem

Here is the list of the common error of Exchange Database Corruption/Damaged issue

Error -501 (JET_errLogFileCorrupt): This user has to face this error due to the presence of some corrupted log files in the exchange server.

Error -533 (JET_errCheckpointCorrupt): This error message occurs in the case when the checkpoint files get deleted or damaged.

Error -1216 (JET_errAttachedDatabaseMismatch):  This error code prompts when the header information that is saved in the log files gets deleted or mismatched.

Dirty Shutdown State Exchange Error: This error occurs when the computer becomes closed while the log files are still in the cache memory.

Error -1601: The user has to face this error internal structure of STM files has been damaged or corrupted during the file recovery.

Due to all this issues and problems of EDB file corruption the user wants to recover damaged exchange mailboxes.

Advaced Solution to Know How to Recover corrupted Exchange Server Mailboxes Quickly

In order to restore corrupted Exchange server mailboxes, user can use the Exchange Recovery software provide by SysTools as the professional solution. This utility helps you to repair and recover exchange server mailboxes. It provides dual scanning mode (Quick and Advance Scan) which removes corruption from the Exchange database file. To recover minimal corrupted EDB file you can select quick scan and choose advance scan to recover highly corrupted Exchange database file without losing a single bit of data.

Download Now Free Purchase Now 100% Secure

If you want to recover deleted Exchange contacts, emails, calendars, and other items along with mailboxes you can use the advance scan mode option of this utility. It recovers permanently deleted Exchange mailboxes and data items from loaded offline/dismounted EDB file.

The software support public and private Exchange database file. It allows users to export multiple Exchange mailboxes such as: archive, user, shared, disconnected, legacy and items like – notes, tasks, journals, contacts, calendars, emails directly to Live Exchange Server, Office 365, and various file formats.

User can convert EDB to PST, PDF, MSG, MBOX, EML, HTML file format easily. The tool auto-generate the export report in CSV file format which store the information of exported Exchange mailbox data.

Key Features Of Automated Software

  1. Repair and Recover multiple corrupted Exchange database file
  2. Preview Microsoft EDB mailbox data items before conversion
  3. Recover purged mailboxes & items from dismounted/offline .edb file
  4. Maintain folder hierarchy and keep metadata intact
  5. Date and category filter option export selective Exchange data
  6. Remove (SMIME/OpenPGP) email encryption in bulk from Exchange mailboxes
  7. Compatible with all Exchange Server, Windows OS, and MS Outlook version

Follow the Steps to Recover Corrupted Exchange Server Mailboxes

Step 1: Download and Install the software on your Machine

download professional software

Step 2: Click on Add File button > Load offline MS Exchange database file

click add file

Step 3: Select the advance scan to recover corrupted Exchange mailboxes > Click on the add button

select advance option

Step 4: Preview recovered EDB mailboxes > Click export

preview recovered exchange contact

Step 5: Select the Exchange mailboxes > Click on export option > Select the browse button to set target file path > Click on the export button

click export click export

Finally, the recovered and healthy Exchange mailboxes are successfully exported to the selected export option

Manual Solution to know How to Recover Corrupted Exchange Server Mailboxes

Microsoft Provides ESEUTIL method to repair corrupted Exchange mailbox data. This is actually the primary technique to solve the exchange database corruption issue. This method corrects the corrupted or damaged database as the page level and table level but not at the application level.

Note: The ESEUTIL application requires the EDB file in offline mode

Insert the command to repair Exchange database:

ESEUTIL/P databasefile.edb

For Example:
command to recover corrupt exchange database

The cmdlet given above remove corruption from EDB file but cannot repair it and creates a few white space. To deleted the unused or empty storage enter the Eseutil /d command which defrag the Exchange database

defragment of exchange db

After that, the user has to run the integrity check on the database to ensure that is consistent. For this, the user has to use a tool “ISInteg

ISInteg -fix

For Example:
command to check integrity

Once the software finished its working, the user can save all the data with the help of exmerge and create a new blank database. After that, the user can again use exmerge to save all the data from PST into the newly created database.

Limitations of Manual Method to Repair Damaged Exchange Server Mailboxes.

  • This process is a lengthy and complex process and it requires strong technical skills.
  • This tool requires a lot of free space to perform its operation.
  • The user will not be able to perform the recovery in case if the database is in dirty shutdown case.3
  • In case if the user will not be able to follow the above steps correctly then the user has to face data loss situations.

Time to Wrap Up

From the write up one can get the ideas how to recover corrupted exchange server mailboxes. In this article, we have discussed the reason why the user has to face exchange database corruption problem.  We have given the manual and expert solution how to restore damaged Exchange mailbox issue. The manual method is very complex and has some limitations due to which user may loose data while recovering the mailbox from corruption. In that case the user can use the advance solution overcome the downside of manual solution and recover highly corrupted Exchange mailboxes and EDB file with any loss of data.