How to use Stellar Repair for Exchange to Recover a Corrupted EDB File

Last Update: Sep 04, 2024 | Published: Jun 02, 2021

Outlook – 5

SHARE ARTICLE

This post was Sponsored by Stellar, you can learn more about their EDB Recovery Tool here.

Exchange Server is Microsoft’s enterprise email, calendaring, contact, scheduling, and collaboration platform. It is an enterprise-class server that is primarily focused on sending, receiving, and storing email messages for all of the users in the organization. The current version is Exchange Server 2019.

There’s no doubt that Exchange is a mission-critical infrastructure component and its continuous availability is essential to all businesses that run it; Exchange supports clustering for server-level high availability. However, server-level clustering can’t protect you if the Exchange data store becomes corrupted. While it is typically very reliable, the Exchange data store can become corrupted for a variety of reasons that can result in the loss of important data across the entire organization and even the disruption of all email services until the data stores are repaired.

Microsoft Exchange Server stores its critical data in an Exchange database file (EDB file). Each Exchange Server creates one EDB file that contains all the mailboxes, emails, calendars, contacts, attachments, and tasks for all of the users in the organization. If the EDB file is damaged or corrupted being able to rapidly repair it is critical for the organization’s business continuity. In this product review, you’ll see how Stellar Repair for Exchange can repair EDB file corruption. First, we’ll look into some of the common reasons that might cause EDB file corruption. Then you’ll see how to install Stellar Repair for Exchange and use it to repair a corrupted EDB file.

Reasons for Exchange corruption

The Exchange EDB can become corrupted because of a number of different events. Some of the most common causes of EDB corruption include:

  • Server failure
  • Storage subsystem failure
  • Operating System failure
  • Exchange Server crash
  • Power failure
  • Malware/Ransomware

In the next sections, you’ll see how to install and use Stellar Repair for Exchange to repair and correct Exchange EDB file corruption.

Requirements and installation

Stellar Repair for Exchange works with all of the popular versions for Exchange including Exchange Server 2019, 2016, 2013, 2010, 2007, 2003, 2000, and 5.5. It has minimal system requirements and works with Windows 10, 8.1, 8, 7 & Windows Server 2016, 2012, 2008.  The minimum system requirements for Stellar Repair for Exchange are:

  • Intel-compatible (x86, x64)
  • 4 GB minimum (8 GB recommended)
  • 250 MB hard disk space

The installation process for Stellar Repair for Exchange is simple and only takes a few minutes. Running the Exchange.exe program starts the installation process. When the installation program first opens it asks you about the language that you want to use as you can see in the Select Setup Language dialog that you can see below.

Stellar Repair for Exchange - Select the language setup
Stellar Repair for Exchange – Select the language setup (Image Credit: Petri.com)

Selecting the desired language and then clicking OK displays the License Agreement dialog.

Accept the licence agreement
Accept the licence agreement (Image Credit: Petri.com)

Click the I accept the agreement option to accept the license and continue the installation process. Clicking Next will display the Select Destination Location dialog.

Select Destination Location
Select Destination Location (Image Credit: Petri.com)

This dialog enables you to select the destination path where you want the program to be installed. By default, it will be installed in the C:Program FilesStellar Repair for Exchange folder. You can change the default installation location by clicking the Browse button and navigating to a different directory. After selecting the installation location clicking Next displays the Select Start Menu Folder dialog that you can see below.

Select Start Menu Folder
Select Start Menu Folder (Image Credit: Petri.com)

By default, the installation program will create a shortcut in the Start Menu folder. If you want to choose a different folder you can click Browse and navigate to a different folder. After selecting the program shortcut location, you can click Next to display the Select Additional Tasks dialog.

Select Additional Tasks
Select Additional Tasks (Image Credit: Petri.com)

On the Select Additional Tasks dialog, you can optionally choose to create a desktop shortcut and a Quick Launch shortcut. The Create a desktop shortcut option is selected by default. Clicking Next displays the Ready to Install dialog that you can see below.

Ready to Install dialog
Ready to Install dialog (Image Credit: Petri.com)

The Ready to Install dialog allows you to review your installation choices. If something has been selected by mistake you can click the Back button to page back and change the installation options that you are using. Clicking Install will start the installation process and display the progress dialog that you can see below.

Installing dialog
Installing dialog (Image Credit: Petri.com)

After the installation process has completed the Completing the Stellar Repair for Exchange Setup Wizard dialog will be displayed. If you check Launch Stellar Repair for Exchange box and click Finish Stellar Repair for Exchange will be started and you can use it to repair your Exchange EDB files.

Completion dialog
Completion dialog (Image Credit: Petri.com)

Repairing the EDB file

You can use Stellar Repair for Exchange to repair a corrupted Exchange EDB file and quickly get your Exchange Server up and running again. Stellar Repair for Exchange is able to restore lost content including e-mails, attachments, contacts, calendars, tasks, and journals.  Stellar Repair for Exchange first scans and extracts data from the corrupt EDB file and repairs it. The data can be directly exported to Live Exchange, Office 365, or a Public Folder. You also have the ability to save the repaired data in other formats including PST, MSG, EML, RTF, PDF, or HTML. The software does not make any changes to the original data.

When Stellar Repair for Exchange launches it looks for the EDB file and displays the Select File dialog that you can see below.

Repairing the EDB file
Repairing the EDB file (Image Credit: Petri.com)

You can click on Browse to navigate to the EDB file that you want to repair. If you don’t know where to find the EDB file you can use the Find button to search for and locate the EDB files. Once you find the EDB file that you need to repair you can click on it and the Select File dialog that you can see below will be displayed.

Select File dialog
Select File dialog (Image Credit: Petri.com)

Clicking Next displays the Select Scan Mode dialog that you can see below.

Select Scan Mode dialog
Select Scan Mode dialog (Image Credit: Petri.com)

The Quick Scan option can handle most EDB file corruption and dismounting issues. However, for more difficult cases you can opt to use the Extensive Scan option. The Extensive Scan uses a more in-depth advanced scanning technology that provides better results but it can also take more time.

Previewing the scanned file

After the scan process has completed Stellar Repair for Exchange displays the preview window that you can see below.

Previewing the scanned file
Previewing the scanned file (Image Credit: Petri.com)

The preview window allows you to view and find email messages, calendar entries, contacts, journals, and notes. The preview of the EDB data file is displayed in the three panes you can see above. The left pane provides a navigation tree that displays the files and its folders and sub-folders. The middle pane provides a list of mailbox items with each folder. It lists the following:

  • Attachments
  • Deleted mail items
  • The from e-mail address of the sender
  • The to e-mail address of the receiver
  • The e-mail subject
  • The date and time when the e-mail was sent

The right pane displays a preview of the email items that you select from the middle pane.

Stellar Repair for Exchange also provides quick search options that you can use to quickly find emails and media files. You can use the quick search option by typing the search keywords in the middle pane immediately below each column heading. Then click the search magnifying glass icon.

Exporting to Live Exchange and Office 365

To save the repaired file to Live Exchange or to Office 365 Click Save button from the Home ribbon. This will display the Save As dialog that you can see below. If the product is not activated or you’re using the demo version you’ll see an activation prompt appear before the Save As dialog.

Exporting to Live Exchange and Office 365
Exporting to Live Exchange and Office 365 (Image Credit: Petri.com)

Stellar Repair for Exchange can export the recovered mailboxes directly to a Live Exchange server with minimal downtime. It can also export the recovered mailboxes directly to Office 365. A mailbox-mapping feature that allows you to export the recovered mailboxes to the correct destination mailboxes. You export mailboxes using the Outlook profile of a user that has administrator rights.

In the Save As dialog select the type of export operation that you want to perform. The Export to Live Exchange option will save the repaired EDB file to a Live Exchange system while the Export to Office 365 will save the repairs to Office 365. In addition, you can also save the repaired items to a PST file, a public folder or other formats including MSG, EML, RTF, PDF or HTML. After selecting your save target clicking Next will display the Enter Login Credentials dialog that is shown below.

Enter Login Credentials dialog
Enter Login Credentials dialog (Image Credit: Petri.com)

Enter the user’s Outlook profile that has administrator rights to export data to the destination mailbox of the Exchange Server. To connect to all the mailboxes on the target server you also need to supply the name of your Active Directory (AD) server and the administrative account and password for the AD server. Pressing Next displays the Map Mailbox dialog that’s shown in the following figure.

Map Mailbox dialog
Map Mailbox dialog (Image Credit: Petri.com)

The Map Mailboxes dialog displays all of the mapped and unmapped mailboxes. The repaired mailboxes are listed in alphabetical order. Mapping is a process that links a mailbox from your source EDB file to a mailbox that already exists on the destination server before exporting the data. The mapping process is required to make sure that the mailbox data from the EDB file is exported to the desired mailbox on the destination server.

Stellar Repair for Exchange provides the option to either Auto-Map or Manually Map the mailboxes. Using Auto-mapping, Stellar Repair for Exchange automatically searches for the mailbox of the user on the destination server with the same name and email address as the user’s mailbox in the source EDB file. If Stellar Repair for Exchange doesn’t find a matching destination mailbox on the target server, then you have to manually create a new user mailbox and export the data to that new mailbox. Manual mapping allows you to either change the destination of the mailbox that is mapped or select a destination mailbox for a mailbox that has not been automatically mapped.

The Map Mailboxes dialog displays the following columns:

  • Selection – This column provides checkboxes that allow you to select or unselect a mailbox.
  • Priority – This column gives a higher importance to mailboxes that need to be exported first.
  • Mailbox from your EDB (Source) – This column lists the mailboxes from the scanned EDB file.
  • Exchange Server Mailbox (Destination) – This column lists the corresponding destination mailboxes.
  • Mailbox Mapping Status – This column displays whether the mailbox is Mapped or Not Mapped.
  • Edit – This column provides a button that allows you to change the destination mailbox.

After you have mapped the mailboxes clicking Export display the following summary dialog.

Map Mailbox or skip dialog
Map Mailbox or skip dialog (Image Credit: Petri.com)

This dialog summarizes the choices from the earlier Map Mailboxes dialog. If you want to go back and map additional mailboxes you can click the Map Mailboxes button. If you want to proceed with the mapping choices that you made you can on the Skip Mapping button which will display the following Save dialog.

Save dialog
Save dialog (Image Credit: Petri.com)

The Mailbox Name column lists the mailboxes from the scanned EDB file that you have select to be exported and saved. The Destination Mailbox lists email addresses in the destination server. The Status column lists the current status of the export process. The Total Items Processed shows the number of items exported to the destination mailbox. Percentage shows the progress of the saving process. The Stellar Repair for Exchange can process up to four mailboxes at a time during the export process. This parallel processing reduces the time required to repair and save mailboxes. The Remove button on the far right of the screen allows you to remove specific mailboxes from the list of mailboxes that are being processed.

When the mapping process has completed the following Saving Complete dialog is displayed and the recovered EDB file items will have be saved to either a Live Exchange server, Office 365 or to one of the other supported formats.

Saving complete dialog
Saving complete dialog (Image Credit: Petri.com)

Editions and Licensing

There are three editions of Stellar Repair for Exchange: Corporate, Technician and Toolkit.

Corporate Edition

The Professional edition is the core version of Stellar Repair for Outlook. It is licensed for a single user at $399 and it provides the most essential EDB repair capabilities including:

  • Repairs corrupt EDB files and recovers email, contacts, calendars, tasks, and notes
  • Repairs up to 100 mailboxes
  • Export the recovered mailboxes & Public folders to Live Exchange, Office 365 or PST
  • Saves repaired EDB file in PST, EML, MSG, RTF, HTML, and PDF file formats

Technician Edition

The Technician edition can be licensed for multiple users at $599. The Technician edition has all of the features found in the Corporate edition plus it adds the ability to:

  • Support for multiple user licenses
  • The ability to repair unlimited mailboxes

Toolkit Edition

The Toolkit edition is licensed for multiple users at $999. The Toolkit edition is a 5-in-1 set of tools for repairing corrupt EDB files. The Toolkit includes: Exchange Recovery, Mailbox Extractor, OST to PST Converter, Exchange Backup Extractor, and Password Recovery. It has the following capabilities:

  • Support for multiple user licenses
  • The abilities to repair unlimited mailboxes
  • Includes Mailbox Extractor, OST to PST Converter, Exchange Backup Extractor, and Password Recovery
  • Extract offline mailboxes from corrupt Exchange backup files
  • Convert EDB file to PST format
  • Reset lost password of Windows Server

Summary

Stellar Repair for Exchange is powerful and easy to use. It can rapidly repair corrupted Exchange EDB files without any data loss bringing your essential Exchange email services back online quickly.

You can try Stellar Repair for Exchange risk-free. The trial version provides a preview of mailbox items including emails, attachments, notes, calendar entries, contacts, and sent items to enable you to test and validate the Exchange mailbox recovery process. You can download the free trial version from Start Using Stellar Repair for Exchange Today With the Free Trial.

SHARE ARTICLE