Solving Exchange Server 2007 Database Corruption

Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 includes several data security and database improvements that give an appearance of a relatively safer application. The prime enhancements that this version provides are extended database size limitation up to 16 TB, increased number of storage groups per server, improved antivirus, anti-spam protection, and more. Despite of these improvements, Exchange database corruption is not an exception. An Exchange Server 2007 database is vulnerable to get corrupt because of Dirty shutdown, application issues, and the like common causes. The prime solution to deal with such problems should be use Exchange repair utilities or to restore from backup. But if none of these measures works, you require an Exchange Recovery utility.

Consider the following practical example of such problems. You use Exchange Server 2007 and observe database corruption with the following symptoms:

You try to copy the database, but the copy operation fails reporting an I/O error in system log, such as below:

The driver detected a controller error on \Device\Harddisk0\DR0.

When you try to move a mailbox from the corrupted store to a new one, it cannot be accomplished with an error similar to below:

Unable to move mailbox mailbox_name.
A problem occurred while getting the properties for a message.
Parent folder name: Inbox; Message subject: RE: SND253P1 ; Error code: 0xfffffa0a.
Run ISINTEG to check for any problem in the database "First Storage Group\Mailbox Database

As suggested by the above error, when you run ISINTEG utility to check the database consistency, you receive the below error:

MSExchangeIS (3932) First Storage Group: Data inconsistency detected in table table_num of database database_path

Also, the ESEUTIL /p repair operation fails to fix the database corruption.

Such situations indicate database corruption to an extent that it cannot be repaired and dealt using MS Exchange utilities. To extract the mailboxes, you need solutions like:

1. A database backup that can be used to restore.

2. A third-party repair Exchange Server Recovery utility that can repair and restore the database contents. An Exchange Recovery utility can use effective, yet safe, scanning algorithms to recover the lost data in intact form.

Exchange Recovery Tool is a professional utility with ability to recover mailboxes from a corrupted Exchange database in individual *.pst files. The Exchange Server Recovery application supports Exchange Server 2007, 2003, 2000, and 5.5. The tool also supports recovering deleted mailboxes and STM file data in an e-mail body.