How to Recover Corrupt Exchange Database with Eseutil

Author: Sandeep Kumar

Exchange Server database files are complex and thus proper steps should be followed to recover them. Unorganised arrangement of files and folders create more problems and could also cause loss of files. The user mailbox, public folders all should be recovered without missing any single file. Eseutil is a free tool that can do this task for free. Check out the steps to recover Exchange Server with Eseutil and Isinteg.

Before moving ahead, it is strongly advised to take backup of the Exchange Database, so that it can be restored as it is if some error occurs. Database Switches or Eseutil switches will be used to get back data from the exchange server. So users must be aware of these switches and their functions. Have a look at some of these switches

Eseutil Commands / Switches

  1. Eseutil /mh: Check Database Consistency

  2. Eseutil /g: Check Database integrity

  3. Eseutil /r: Soft recovery to restore database

  4. Eseutil /p: Hard recovery of severe corrupt database

  5. Eseutil /d: Defragments files in Database

  6. Eseutil /y: Use to copy log files in database

  7. Eseutil /m: It shows database files

  • These switches will come in use while repairing and restoring the corrupt Exchange database. There are some conditions which should be available to recover database like

Location of the corrupted file

Enough space in drive/ server to run Eseutil tool

Dismounted Exchange database

How to Dismount Database

  • Follow the below given steps to dismount database and prepare for recovery
  • From Exchange Server go to Exchange Management Console
  • Here move to ‘organisation configuration’ and then click on mailbox
  • Click on ‘database management’ tab and you will see list of database available
  • Right click on the database which is corrupted and click on ‘Dismount Database’
  • The database will be dismounted and is ready to use with Eseutil

Restore Exchange Database

  • Open the command prompt and click on and type Eseutil.exe to start tool
  • Check the database consistency with Eseutil/mh command
  • If the server has minor errors then fix it with Eseutil/r command. The files which were unavailable in the database will get restored.
  • If some files are left then type Eseutil/p to perform hard recovery.
  • Now check the files in the temporary folder of the database, it should be empty for successful recovery
  • Now finally defragment the database with Eseutil/ d command.

Eseutil restore and repairs the database and to ensure there is no error use the Isinteg tool. Check the database public folders and mailbox with Isinteg

  • Isinteg -s ServerName [-fix] [-verbose] [-l logfilename] -test testname
  • The commands fix the inconsistencies in database and reports for same.

This is the free method by which one can easily repair and restore the corrupt database. However, the commands should be run properly to avoid any mistake. Else try the Exchange Recovery software which repairs the exchange server database (EDB) files efficiently and restore all the data in user-mailbox. The tool can be used in Offline and Online mode.