Online help for Exchange Server Recovery Toolbox

Exchange Server Recovery Toolbox (download) is used to recover the complex structure of Microsoft Exchange Server data. It is extremely easy to use this tool because it is a simple and easy-to-understand step-by-step wizard. You do not have to be a database specialist or an experienced system administrator to successfully recover data after a serious software or hardware failure. This article will tell you about all recovery steps. Please read it carefully before you start recovering data.

Program interface

The interface of Exchange Server Recovery Toolbox is a step-by-step wizard with minimum control elements on each page. Most features of the program are automated and the program does them automatically, but you can always make some changes in the recovery process to achieve certain aims.

Main window

After you start the program, use this step to select the version of Microsoft Exchange whose files should be recovered. If you use Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 or an earlier version, select the Exchange 2003 and later option. If you have a newer version of Exchange Server 2007, select Exchange 2007 and greater. After you select the necessary version of Microsoft Exchange, click the Next button to move to the next step.

Selecting the source file(s)

Depending on the version of the source files selected in the previous step, enter either one or two values on the second page of the program. Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 and earlier versions use a pair of associated files to store data: .edb (the Exchange database) and .stm . That is why enter two names of the source files for Microsoft Exchange Server 2003. If you select Exchange 2007 and greater, you should enter only the path and name of an *.edb file.

You can specify the name of the source file using one of the methods below:

1. Type the path and the file name of the file in the corresponding field.
2. Select one of the previously used files from the drop-down list. To open the list, click the small icon with a black triangle in the right part of the field and select the files you want to use again.
3. Use the standard Open File dialog box. To do it, click the dialog button in the right part of the field and select necessary files on your hard drive. Double-click the file or click the Open button in the Open File dialog box to finish this process.

ATTENTION: If you are recovering data from Exchange Server 2003 or an earlier version, repeat the above process for both files (*.edb and *.stm). Note that the field for specifying the name of the *.stm file will be unavailable until you select the *.edb source file. By default, the program automatically specifies the name and the path of the first file in the second field changing only the extension, but you can select another file using one of the methods described above.

After you select the source file(s), click the Next button to move to the next step of the recovery process.

Viewing the structure and data of the corrupted database. Selecting files and folders for recovery

After you click the Next button on the second page of the Exchange Server Recovery Toolbox Wizard, the source data analysis starts. The program analyzes the structure of the database files(s) and shows it as a tree consisting of folders and folder objects. This recovery wizard page consists of two main parts. The left pane shows the tree of folders the program detected in the corrupted files and the right pane allows you to view the contents of the folder selected in the left pane. You can navigate the tree by clicking its nodes (to expand or collapse them) and selecting the necessary objects. You can also right-click anywhere in the left pane and use the context menu consisting of the Select All and Deselect All commands. These commands are used to quickly select all available objects and clearing the selection of all objects respectively.

The right pane is horizontally divided into two parts. Its upper part displays the list of objects (messages, contacts, reminders, notes, tasks, etc.) and its lower part displays the contents of separate objects.

If you want to recover all data found in the corrupted database file, use the Select All command from the context menu of the left pane. Otherwise, select the checkboxes of the objects you want to recover. After you select the objects, click Next to move to the next step.

Specifying the folder for saving data

Exchange Server Recovery Toolbox offers you to enter the path to the folder to save the recovered data to in this step. Type the name of the folder manually or use the standard Select Folder dialog box. The dialog box also allows you to create a new folder by clicking the Create folder button. After you specify the folder to save the data to, click the Recover button.

Recovering data and viewing the results

In the last step of the recovery process Exchange Server Recovery Toolbox starts the data recovery process and shows the detailed report about it. The time this process takes directly depends on the size of the recovered file, the number of selected objects and the performance of your computer. After all objects are recovered, the program will notify you. You can open the folder with the saved results immediately by clicking the Show Results button in the right part of the page. You can open *.pst files containing the recovered data in Microsoft Outlook.

Now you can exit the program by clicking the Exit button or use the Back button to get back to one of the previous steps and select another file, other objects or the folder to save the data to.

ATTENTION: The unregistered version of Exchange Server Recovery Toolbox recovers only first 5 objects from any folder. Purchase the full version of the program to disable this limitation.