How to Recover Corrupt Exchange Server Database

So your Exchange Server database file (EDB format) has been corrupted and you are seeking ways to recover it? Keep reading Let us inform you that you are on the right post.

Microsoft Exchange Server has transformed highly qualified email correspondence in businesses. Regardless of the company’s size, email interaction inside and outside the company has become much more efficient and simple.

Microsoft has added a slew of functionalities to Exchange to ensure that users’ emails are extremely safe. However, numerous concerns are always lurking around, threatening the user database. Such attacks corrupt and render the exchange database unreachable.

Probable causes of the Exchange Server Database corruption are:

• If the user makes any missettings or any unknowing removals,
• The majority of the errors occur due to malware attacks.
• Incorrect impacts on the database schema.
• unexpected closure of your device.
• Misconfiguration of the program
• Database items have an error.

Is there any manual way to recover a corrupted Exchange server database?

Absolutely. Microsoft has provided an in-buit tool that is named “Eseutil”. It is beneficial for repairing corrupted database systems, defragmenting them, verifying the integrity of data, and reducing the size of the database.

But before introducing the features of the tools, we would like to inform you that this is more boring than any other manual approach. Here you need to use some command lines too. Therefore, you must have technical knowledge. If you are okay with all of these, then the processes are below described.

In the indicated image as follows, we have shown the location or destination path of the Eseutil tool. But this location is only for Exchange Server 2013 or 2016 users.

You don’t need to download it from any third-party website or install it on your device. As you have MS Exchange, the utility is by default situated on your device. (Don’t pay anyone to buy this tool!)

Before you recover your Exchange Database EDB files with the Eseutil tool, you must know its features and functions.

Here we have added some commands and command lines that you should know. Take a look at them.

• If you need to defragment the database, use the command = eseutil /d
• When you need to repair the database, use the command line = eseutil /p
• To restore your database, type command line = eseutil /r.
• When you wish to check the database integrity, the command = eseutil /g.
• For verifying the checksum in your database, enter command = eseutil /k
• To view the headers, logs, or checkpoint files, enter command = eseutil /m
• When you try to copy the database and log files, command = eseutil /y
• When you need to attempt any hard recovery, just command = eseutil /c

In all of these commands, we will use the first line, which relates to defragment, to fix any database issues and recover data.

Here is the step-by-step procedure to defragment the database using the Eseutil tool

Before you start applying the commands, we strongly suggest you keep a backup of your database to avoid unwanted data loss.

• Firstly, you need to dismount your database from the Exchange. For that, you can either execute the code shown in the image as follows or follow the code structure like this.

Dismount-Database –Identity <name of the database>

Here, instead of “name of the database”, place the name or title of your database here.

• Then execute the defragment command line-eseutil/d (in the above section, we have added the command for each action). You can follow the command structure below and see the image given below to execute the command correctly.

eseutil /d <name of the database> /T <location of temporary path>

Here, instead of ‘name of the database’, input your own database name, and instead of ‘location of temporary path’, input your own location path by copying from your device.

• Mount the database back to Exchange after effectively executing the Eseutil prompt. The command line structure is the same as the first one.

Mount-Database –Identity <name of the database>

• Now, you need to repair the database. For that command, is-eseutil/p. (We have shown it above.) The command structure is

eseutil /p <location of the database>

Here, instead of the “location of the database,” input your database location path.

• Ultimately, execute the “new-mailbox repair request” script to rebuild the database failures. The structure of the command line is as follows:

New-MailboxRepairRequest -Database <name of the database> -CorruptionType <type of corruption>

Here, instead of ‘type of corruption’, input the corrupted type that has occurred on the database.

However, you can also execute the eseutil/r command to restore your Exchange database. In this way, you may resolve your Exchange server database corruption or related issues. But note that you may need to execute the command multiple times to resolve the entire issue with your database.

As a technically inexperienced person, you may find the steps very hard for you. Don’t you? However, you have an alternative option of using any third-party Exchange Server Recovery tool. We highly suggest using any professional tool or taking help from any experienced person, as there is a huge chance of data loss during use of the Eseutil tool, even if you are experienced.