Lost public folders on production server. Still have db and backups. Best way to restore?

[CorbinMyMan]

Last week I moved my Exchange 2007 Server to a new server. Everything has been running great since. This morning I tried shutting down my old server but due to public folder replicas I could not. In a rush I have seem to lost my public folders on both servers. I followed this and seemed to have deleted the public folders on my old server, which then sync'd to my new server. So as of now I have no public folders. Here's what I do have:

1. Windows Server Backups of public folders.
2. Original edb and log files of public folders

Currently, the size of the edb files in exchange are the same size as before I accidentally deleted them, which confuses me. But if I look at them in public folders they aren't there. If I look in Public Folder Management Console, they aren't there. I don't understand why the size of the file is still the same.

What's the best way to restore these on the new server? Can I just do a windows server backup restore on the new server and restore the public folders? As of right now the old server is the default Public Folder Database for the stores (Server Config -> Mailbox -> Right click database, properties -> Client Settings Tab -> Defautl Public Folder Database)

 

[CorbinMyMan]

I was able to restore the database and log files using Windows Server Backup. Public folders are up and running and working. Now to figure out how to shut down old email server.

I can't seem to uninstall exchange because the old Public Folders is the default for the Mailbox database. Can I just set the default to the new public folder on the new server?

 

[CorbinMyMan]

Ok my issue now is that I can't uninstall Exchange on the old server because of the Public Folder Replicas. I get the error:

 Mailbox Role Checks              ......................... FAILED
     Uninstall cannot continue. Database 'Public Folder Database': The public folder database "PXE-EXCHSVR2007\Second Storage Group\Public Folder Database" contains folder replicas. Before deleting the public folder database, remove the folders or move the replicas to another public folder database. For detailed instructions about how to remove a public folder database, see [URL unfurl="true"]http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=81409.[/URL]

How can I clean up these replicas on the old server? I want this old server shut down completely. Thank you!

 

[CorbinMyMan]

I was able to solve this by using ADSIEdit to manually remove the public folder store and replication from the server. After that uninstalling Exchange worked perfectly.

In ADSIEdit, go to Configuration, Configuration, Services, Microsoft Exchange, <YOUR ORGANIZATION>, Administrative Groups, Exchange Administrative Group, Servers, <SERVER NAME>, Information Store, <STORAGE GROUP NAME>. Then on the right hand pane, highlight the Public Folder Store and Delete it.