Anyone who is looking for a solution to repair EDB files will get their answer on this technical blog. Here, we have provided a detailed overview of the solutions that allow to repair even the severely corrupted EDB files.
Before letting you know about the different ways through you can repair your Exchange EDB we would like to give you more details about them. EDB is basically an Exchange database file that holds/saves the complete data of the Exchange mailboxes. But at some point in time users are unable to access their data and corruption in the EDB files is one of the reasons for it.
Therefore, once EDB files are hit with corruption then users can’t to check their emails, simply they cannot do anything.
However, there are solutions that can remove corruption from the EDB files and in this article we going to learn how to use them.
What are the options available to repair Exchange EDB files?
Damaged Exchange database files which are EDB files when gone in a dirty state, it create problems for users to access the mailbox. It automatically leads to a negative impact on the organization’s workflow. However, there are tools that Microsoft provides such as EseUtil (Exchange extensible storage engine utility) is a tool designed to fix the corruption from damaged EDB files.
Other than this utility there are third-party tools as well that can help in the EDB file repair process. They also allow to solve the problem of corruption from the EDB files. Moreover, this article will discuss both ways to repair EDB files, so carefully read it.
Process to Repair the Corrupted EDB Files Using EseUtil Utility
We have prepared a step-by-step guide on how to use EseUtil to repair EDB files when users do not have the backup to restore them. You also need to fulfill a certain set of requirements like keeping a backup, assigning administrator rights, etc.
After that, follow the listed steps to repair your corrupted EDB file:-
Step: 1 Finding out the location of EseUtil Utility
The first task before repairing the EDB files are to locate the EseUtil utility where you have installed the Exchange server.
For Exchange 2013 or 2016 version:-
You can find the location of the EseUtil tool by entering the path.
C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V15\Bin\
Once the verification of the previously shared has been done, now you need to launch the cmd as admin. Thereafter, make changes in the directory path to the EseUtil location by following the listed command.
cd C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V15\Bin
Step: 2 Verification of the Exchange Database Size
The next thing that the user requires to do is to check whether the space required for the process is available or not. You may be required to open the 1221 event in order to check the whitespace in the Exchange database if the size of the database is somewhere around 10 GB. So, after that, you need to subtract the whitespace space from the total database size. The remaining size is the space that the user needs to allocate for EseUtil to repair EDB files.
Step: 3 Check the State of the Database
Users can use the /MH switch to identify the state of the Exchange database. If you find the state is clean shutdown then there are no issues and the Exchange database can easily mounted. Moreover, if the state of the database is shown as dirty shutdown then in that case the situation indicates a corrupted database. It may happen because of the unavailable or deleted log files.
Step: 4 Check Log Files
After checking the database state you need to check whether the logs are in a healthy state or if there is some problem with them.
Users can use the log path which you can get from log with the ML prefix with EseUtil utility.
If in case if the log status shows that they are healthy you will see a message that is No damaged log files were found.
Step: 5 Performing Soft Recovery
Once you get confirmation that your logs are in a healthy state you can easily initiate the soft recovery by making use of the EseUtil/r parameter.
You can utilize the EseUtil/mh command after the process completion in order to check the state of the database. Use Mount database cmdlet to mount the database.
Step: 6 Initiating Hard Recovery
We suggest users to only perform the hard-recovery only when the soft recovery of the database has completed failed. Hence, the hard recovery can be executed with the /p parameter.
To execute the process and to get maximum results enough storage is required. After initiating the process you will be warmed with a message which reminds you about the damage. To move ahead you must accept the message stating the warning.
So, this is a complete EDB file repair procedure using the EseUtil utility. This process may consume time which is due to the requirement for executing all the above-listed processes. Along with that, there are various associated of choosing this approach to repair the EDB files like losing the entire data.
Feasible Solution to Repair Corrupted EDB Files
As we have shown you the process of how to repair EDB files it is better to look for some other methods to eliminate the chances of data losses. The Weeom Exchange Recovery Manager tool is an example of a solution that can deal with any type of corruption in the EDB files. This software also provides you the advanced features like the filter option. It helps to repair files with the required data.
If in case the repair process gets halted then because of the tool incremental export facility the process will be resumed from the same point where it gets stopped. To know more about its functionalities, users can download its free demo version.
Summing Up
Users who are searching for a solution to recover the data from their corrupted EDB can go through this blog. Here, we have listed up certain solution that allows to repair EDB files. The free solution discussed in this write-up does not guarantee to recovery of the complete data. Also, it may end up losing the data. Conversely, the third-party software.