Risks of running ISINTEG?

[zaresa]

I have corrupt mailboxes in my Priv IS that is preventing me from deleting these mailboxes and, more importantly, running my backups.

I plan on reinstalling SP 4 and running ISINTEG. However, I am concerned because I was misinformed about the backup jobs I created and have only been backing up mailboxes rather than system files, etc. As such, if the server completely crashes I will not be able to restore it (I have about 600 users).

As you can see, I am "between a rock and a hard place". I do not have a backup tape that I can go to and cannot do a complete backup now. I know that with anything, especially a MS product, there is a risk that the fix could cause more damage than the problem but ..... has anybody experienced ISINTEG taking down a server?

Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated...thank you in advance for any help.

 

[Alshrim]

ISINTEG is an essential troubleshooting tool, especially when restoring a server -- during a restore, you have to run it .. so I would say it's pretty safe.. in fact most use it as part of their maintenance cycle with ESEUTIL to manually defrag the database..

However.. first thing you should try is running the Consistancy Checker from within the Exchange Admin before running any command-line utilities. It's quicker and can be safer..

I suggest that as your first thing to do before going in and using ISINTEG.. it may just save you some time.

Alshrim
System Administrator
MCSE, MCP+Internet