Some mailboxes have completely emptied ???!!

[OxygenThief]

Something very wierd happened this morning.

First (and maybe unrelated) the Exchange server had lost touch with the GC DC, which had come unresponsive. Restarted both.

Now I have a major issue ...

50% of the users have now got an empty mailbox - everything. However, their email messaging and mailbox is working OK, albeit empty.

Nothing in the log files shows any reason why this should of happened.

Could someone please help to point me in the right direction for resolution and identifying why this has happened.

 

[DarkHat]

Ouch! Really Weird....
How your client are setuped?
Do they use a OST, a PST or normally they keep everything on the server?
Maybe they just download there mails into a pst file?

 

[OxygenThief]

Thanks for the reply.

The users are all configured for delivery to the mail server, they don't use pst's and only the laptop users use ost's.

These all happened this morning.

 

[DarkHat]

Hummmm! Really strange...

Is the size of your store still the same then yesterday... or it changed?

I don't really see a solution... But normally a delete did not happen alone... Do you have another Exchange server on your network... Maybe the mailboxes have been move to the other server?

In the last issue... if you have tried to reboot...
Maybe you can restore the mailboxe by mailboxe if you can with your Backup software. Other wise you will have to restore all your store on another server (In a separate environement) and make pst files with the mailboxes you need, burn every pst file and give the cd to the users....

I know this is a painfull solution... but if they absolutly need to have those emails....

Maybe you can check on the microsoft site... they will probably tell you the same thing... or reinstall the service pack!

Take a look at that!

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...familyid=9e52bafc-5c33-46b9-af14-04e4d989ef6b

Hope could help... let us know

 

[wacobd]

Another solution to the Exmerge is if it comes to that, instead of burning them to a CD, why not do a two step exmerge and then import them back into the mailbox.

First thing though is to see if you have a good backup of the mailboxes in question and restore them. That would be your best, quickest, and easiest solution.

 

[OxygenThief]

In reply to darkhat...

Is the size of your store still the same then yesterday... or it changed? .....It looks smaller, but I only looked at it after the files were deleted.....

Do you have another Exchange server on your network... Maybe the mailboxes have been move to the other server? No other servers.


wacobd... Yes I agree two step exmerge would work well in this case. Except for there is no decent, recent backup. DOH!!!!

This has affected only some users, and has not been destructive to the database, Exchange is running sweet apart from this. I checked a users log file and found no instance of any unusual behaviour.

Anyway, one of the chaps who was helping me this morning, said that after Exchange services were restarted, a load of mailboxes had a red x next to them. There was then an error along the lines of 'these accounts are already logged in' but he can't remember the exact message and I haven't seen it before to help. This is almost certainly the cause, but I cannot identify it - has anyone else seen anything like this?

 

[OxygenThief]

Also, there are a number of accounts that cannot open their email folders at all. Outlook starts with the folder items "Outlook Today - Mailbox" and "Public Folders".

Public folders can be expanded but the mailbox store gives the message...

"Unable to expand the folder. The set of folders could not be opened".

I have checked the properties and it is looking at the correct server and account. I also reconfigured this to make sure.

On sending a message to this account, I get the following..

This is an automatically generated Delivery Status Notification.

"Your message has been successfully relayed to the following recipients, but the requested delivery status notifications may not be generated by the destination."

 

[DarkHat]

Hummm At this point I have no idea...