Sometimes, things go wrong with your Exchange Server infrastructure and you will not want to be in a tricky situation if the server goes down. Though one can say that their setup is fool proof, there is always a chance that things may still go haywire. Incidents like a sudden fire in the server-room, an electrical fault, structural accidents in the server-room, etc., are extra-ordinary. Disasters may also happen due to human errors such as incorrect installation of a software on the server, wrongly updating the server, pulling a plug to suddenly turn off the server, a hard drive or fibre cable is pulled live while the server is running, etc. These things can and will happen as we do not live in a perfect world. The only thing we can do is be prepared for such cases.
In case such situations arise, there is no need to panic. Just make sure that you have the right tools for the job. If anything happens, first and foremost, you need a few things, such as:
- Healthy full backup of the day before
- Enough resources
- Right tools
Although the native tools such as EseUtil can come in handy, they’re not a life saver due to the fact that they cannot open and export data from a corrupt or orphaned EDB file from a dead Exchange Server. Also, there is no guarantee that you will get your data back. In such situations and to get back the crucial services, along with all the data, with the least possible downtime, you would need a best and perfect application for any Exchange Server Admin. One such application is the Stellar Repair for Exchange and I will show you how.
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Installation of Stellar Repair for Exchange is easy. It finishes in less than five minutes. It opens the corrupted EDB file. With native tools, you can only try to repair the file. But with Stellar Repair for Exchange, you can easily open an EDB file from a Windows 10 system, with nothing installed on it. You do not need an Exchange Server to open an EDB file with it. Personally, I have often found myself in sticky situations, trying to solve problems such as database wouldn’t mount. I tried performing hard recovery by using EseUtil and restoring the last healthy backup – both resulted in data loss. With Stellar Repair for Exchange, apart from wasting a lot of time trying to repair the database, I could easily do the job in less than an hour.
The software’s interface is familiar and easy to learn. All the options are available on the main screen. To start off, you just need to open the application, and then either open the EDB file or search for the EDB files on your server or PC.
Depending on the damage, you can either choose to do a quick scan or a deep scan to extract all the data from a damaged file and that is it.
After the EDB file or files have been scanned, you will have a complete overview of what is in your databases, and all the mailboxes and features will open.
The view is similar to that of Outlook. It is easy to familiarize with the application. On the left hand side, you’ll see the structure of the EDB file with all the mailboxes and their respective structure. In the middle pane, you will see the list of items while on the right, you will have the preview pane. At the bottom, there is an option to browse through all the mailbox features such as Contacts, Calendar, Task and Journal.
But only a nice experience does not make an application good. The main thing is what it can do under the hood. Well, it has the functionality of in-line searching and search criteria. When it comes to exporting of data, it allows you to granularly export the data to PST and other formats.
Apart from this, it can extract data from orphaned EDB files. The most important feature, in my opinion, is that it can export recovered EDB file directly to an Exchange Server Database. You wouldn’t need to export EDB data to PST and then import it to your database as the application will do this for you. All you need to do is sit right there and have a celebratory coffee, while your new mailboxes are being populated.
You can export only a mailbox or multiple EDB files to a live Exchange Database or Office 365 tenant. You just need to enter the Exchange Administrator credentials, and select the Auto Map feature which will match the users to the mailboxes you are restoring, while giving you the option to modify the match accordingly.
In Conclusion
Stellar Repair for Exchange is a best Exchange recovery software. It can get you out from almost any situation and reduce the recovery time to a minimum. It can be used in disasters and in the daily processes. The software is not invasive as you can install it on any device. It is highly recommended to have this application in your arsenal. I will give the application two thumbs up for its features and performance.
