Removing public folders

[kavik9]

our exchange server was downstream from some other exchange servers. To make a long story short we are now on our own. every thing works fine but the public folders i can still see thiers but when i click on them i get "unable to display folder" I have no need for these folders nor are they ever going to get replecated agian. The problem is i can't seem to delete them any clues?

 

[TravTrav]

Did you have permissions on these folders before you removed your exchange server?

 

[kavik9]

no exchange server was managed by another company.

 

[TravTrav]

Do you not want to rebuild the exchange server?

 

[kavik9]

the exchange server is currently working fine (hardware is dying) so I will be migrating it to a new server I know how to do that. I just wanted to remove these old folder links before i move to the new server with the same name.

 

[TravTrav]

What all are you moving? ie users, mail, etc.

 

[kavik9]

my plan is to move everything by installing win2k server with exchange 5.5 same name same ip. moving all dirs from old exchange (current exchange server) then doing all the patches (isinteg ect.) then turn off the old server so it could rest in peace. i have tested this it works but does complain about the folders that we no longer have access to.

 

[SauceMe]

I am having the same problem. This is caused by a public folder being homed on a nonexistent exchange server. I.E. the public folder never got deleted or moved before the exchange server was removed. I would love to know how to delete these public folders to.

 

[Taffyboyo]

This can definately be done, I had to do this a couple of years ago. We were linked to our parent company and the public folders were replicated, then another company bought us and the link was broken. Unfortunately I can't remember how I did it, I think I had to do 2 things, the first was in Exchange Administrator program, I had to remove the old server from the replicas tab on the properties of the public folder and then home the folder on the current server using the advanced tab. I may of even had to give myself permissions to the folders. Then I think Outlook allowed me to delete them. Try it, let me know if it doesn't work and I'll have a dig around.

 

[kaj1986]

I am having the same problem...does anyone know how to fix it???????

 

[profchaos]

Have you tried entering the Exchange Administrator in raw mode? \exchange path\bin\admin.exe /r

After starting the administrator with the /r switch, go to the View menu and select "raw directory"

I had a similar problem where I couldn't delete orphan objects but in raw mode I was able to get rid of them.

 

[kaj1986]

I tried going into raw mode and it still didn't work. I cannot highlight the folder and delete it.

 

[kaj1986]

I found the answer to this problem. This is for exchange 5.5 on a windows 2000 server. Open Exchange Administrator and go to public information store under Mailsite\Configuration\Servers\<servername>\Public Information Store. Go to File\Properties and click on the Instances tab. In the left pane will be all your public folders and sub folders, ADD THEM ALL. This will then allow you to see the properties of each public folder. You will need to go into the properties of each public folder AND subfolder and take ownership. You can then go into your outlook and delete each public folder.

 

[supercoups]

I am having the same issue. I tried
&quot;Mailsite\Configuration\Servers\<servername>\Public Information Store. Go to File\Properties and click on the Instances tab. In the left pane will be all your public folders and sub folders, ADD THEM ALL. This will then allow you to see the properties of each public folder. You will need to go into the properties of each public folder AND subfolder and take ownership. You can then go into your outlook and delete each public folder.&quot;

They were already added to the Instances list. When I try to delete them from Outlook the delete function is not available. When I try to remove them from the Instances list i get this message:

Cannot remove folder . This is the only instance.

Help?

 

[SaintJames]

I'm sorry to change the subject a little. I just removed an exchange server 5.5. I was replicating the Public folders however I now know that I needed to replicate the content as well. I'm triing to get the old exange server back online however all of the configurations seem to have dispered. How can I get the old content back?