Exmerge and Passwords??

[blakey2]

Hi All,

Running E2k3 standard. Works well.

I thought I would clean up the store etc by archiving some old users still on the system to PST files.

I used exmerge (as part of the migration wizard) to extract the mailboxes to PST.

Trouble is that when I try and open the 'outlook data file' it asks me for a password. As I never set one, I have no clue as to what this might be?

NB: i did notice a .PASSWORD files which were generated by the exmerge, but (foolishly) deleted the additional files as I was unaware that it would auto-generate a password for the file.

Is there any way to:

a) recover the lost password by analysing the PST?
b) control/disable this behaviour?

Thanks!

 

[58sniper]

The only time I've seen it put passwords on the .pst files is when using the migration wizard, not exmerge. Are you sure you didn't use the migration wizard? I use exmerge ever day and never have it use passwords.

find a copy of pst19upg.exe and it will strip the passwords by creating another .pst file without a password.

I use forfiles.exe and a batch file to cycle through all of them and do it automagically. But you can skip this.

And you do know all of the evils of .pst files, right? EVIL!

Pat Richard, MCSE(2) MCSA:Messaging, CNA(2)

 

[blakey2]

Hi 58Sniper,

Yes, I was using the migration wizard. How do you use exmerge without invoking thie migration wizard?

And you do know all of the evils of .pst files, right? EVIL!

I have read a fair bit about PST files, corruption, size limitation, network corruption etc.. (This is probably not all of the evils though )

What do you recommend for the archival of mail when the user no longer works for the company and I want to remove their mailbox from the information store?

At present I copy their entire windows profile to optical media, of which I retain a copy on-site and one off site.
Their mailbox I have been exporting to a pst, retaining a copy on the server, and two copies on optical media (one on site and the other offsite).

Cheers.

 

[DOSA]

You can download a copy of Exmerge for Exchange 2003 here:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...c-dcdf-47dc-96da-1c12d67327d5&DisplayLang=en.

Modify the settings in Exmerge.ini to meet your needs and then just run the Exmerge.exe. In Exchange 2003, you do need to set up an account to use Exmerge. Check out this article for information on setting up the account:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/292509/en-us.

I too would like to know if anybody has a recommendation for email archive other than the .pst files. Most of our users do use .pst files to archive their emails. Some of these files are on their hard drives and quite a few of them are actually on the network drives. And I also had at least several users with 1.5GB to 1.8GB .pst files. But, I haven't had a sigle problem with a .pst files yet (knock on wood).

 

[58sniper]

I'd be carefull using .pst files if you're governed by SOX or HIPAA, as I believe that would violate the law.

Careful of .pst files, as they cannot exceed 2GB if you're using Exmerge.

There are PLENTY of archiving programs such as GFI's MailArvhiver (

http://www.gfi.com/mailarchiver/)

that do a great job.

Pat Richard, MCSE(2) MCSA:Messaging, CNA(2)

 

[blakey2]

Hi 58Sniper,

Not sure what SOX or HPIAA are so best ask: - What are they? I would imagine that they are about information retention and privacy? I'm in Australia so I don't believe they apply to me, but better check eh?

As for GFI I already use it as it came bundled with Mail Essentials, which is our antiSPAM.
It seems a little crippled at present though as I am only running an access (MS Jet) database, which too has a 2GB limit. (It auto generates another mdb file when it is 'full')
As far as I can tell, I can only query mail from the 'current' database/'mdb file'.
I might install SQL, or I might not. Irrespective of this decision, I would be most interested in the practice of others when it comes to e-mail archiving of redundant users.

Cheers - Appreciate the input - Chris.

 

[58sniper]

You're best to go with a SQL solution.

HIPAA and SOX don't apply to you, assuming you don't have locations in the U.S. that:
1. deal with health insurance related matters (HIPAA)
2. are not a publicly traded company, or deal with the S.E.C. (SOX)

Pat Richard, MCSE(2) MCSA:Messaging, CNA(2)