Server crashed, need help bringing back up!

[newnetadmin]

I have read a couple of articles regarding moving to different hardware and disaster recovery, but I have a slightly different problem.

Last night the exchange server took a dive and will not boot or see the drives. Since they were in a special array, they cannot be seen by other servers when trying to boot or repair but I can slave them to my computer and get everything out of them. I am in the process of creating another NT4 server to replace this one. How can I tell where all the paths were and what service pack it had installed from looking in the hard drive as a slave?
Also, what would be the best procedure to set everything the way it was?

Please help, the users without email are like zombies, they can't even think straight.

 

[zbnet]

You mean you don't know which service pack you're running on your Exchange server? How can this be? You could guess SP4, or maybe SP3? How is it you don't know?

It might be best to build a new server with the same name, org and site name as the old one, and simply restore your last good online backup of the information stores to the new server. If your restore includes the Directory then you get all the mailboxes and their details back as well, otherwise you'll have to do a DS/IS consistency check to repopulate the directory with basic objects, and fill out the details by hand.

 

[rdroske]

The procedure wou be to restore to the new server from a backup.

Just telling the new server where the files from the old one were( or just moving the data files to the new server) will not work.

Even if it would you would probably be just recreating the problem.

 

[newnetadmin]

Well, all this was installed before my time and the email admin role just fell on my lap recently.

I was able to rebuild the drives boot sector and the server is back online. I have ordered a new server and want to migrate exchange to it. I will probably need some advice as how to move all the settings and mailboxes to the new server.

Thanks for your help!

 

[rdroske]

I've always found that restoring from a backup is the easiest way to do that also.

But if this one is back online you do have other options.

It would depend mostly on how many mailboxes you're looking at, how big the store is etc.

Glad to hear you got it back though. Definitely will make your life easier.