Manually Move the Exchange Database

For Exchange 2000/2003 the mail store is found in the folders C:\Program Files\Exchsrvr\MDBDATA and C:\Program Files\Exchsrvr\srsdata.

For Exchange 2007 the mail database is found in the folders C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\Mailbox\First Storage Group and C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\Mailbox\Second Storage Group. (The latter storage group will not exist if you elected to not create a public folder database for Outlook 2003.)

If are unable to mount the Exchange database, you can re-copy the Exchange database yourself.

Exchange 2000/2003

To manually copy the Exchange mail store use the following procedure:

1. Stop all Exchange services.
2. Open a command console prompt.
3. Type cd /d "C:\Program Files\Exchsrvr"
4. Type RENAME MDBDATA MDBDATA_OLD
5. Type XCOPY "C:\StagingFolder\C?\Program Files\Exchsrvr\MDBDATA" MDBDATA /S /E /H /K /I /O /V
6. Type RENAME srsdata srsdata_old
7. Type XCOPY "C:\StagingFolder\C?\Program Files\Exchsrvr\srsdata" srsdata /S /E /H /K /I /O /V
8. Restart the Exchange services (or reboot).

(If you moved the Exchange databases or the log files to alternate folders, use the procedure shown above with the alternate folder names.)

Exchange 2007

To manually copy the Exchange mail database use the following procedure:

1. Stop all Exchange services.
2. Open a command console prompt.
3. Type cd /d "C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\Mailbox"
4. Type RENAME "First Storage Group" "OLD First Storage Group"
5. Type XCOPY "C:\StagingFolder\C?\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\Mailbox\First Storage Group" "First Storage Group" /S /E /H /K /I /O /V
6. Type RENAME "Second Storage Group" "OLD Second Storage Group"
7. Type XCOPY "C:\StagingFolder\C?\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\Mailbox\Second Storage Group" "Second Storage Group" /S /E /H /K /I /O /V
8. Restart the Exchange services (or reboot).

(If you moved the Exchange databases or the log files to alternate folders, use the procedure shown above with the alternate folder names.)

This procedure essentially reproduces the exact steps taken by UMove to copy the Exchange database.

When to manually move the database

A manual copy may be required if you are having problems accessing the mail store. The problems are typically due to running Exchange before installing the correct service pack, causing Exchange to write to the database with an older version of the software that is not compatible with the newer database format. The workaround is to manually re-copy the mail store database after applying the service pack.

Moving Exchange