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Remove the M Drive Mapping in Exchange 2000

How can I remove the IFS Mapping for Drive M in Exchange 2000 Server?
MS KB 305145 has more info:
This step-by-step article describes how to remove the Exchange 2000 Installable File System (IFS) mapping from drive M.
The IFS provides access to the Exchange 2000 information store through Win32 file system APIs. The Exchange 2000 IFS supports the ”.’backofficestorage’ namespace. For compatibility and convenience, Exchange 2000 also supports a normal drive namespace, by default M:’. The IFS was introduced in Exchange 2000 as a way to access the Exchange 2000 information store by using the standard file system interface.
However, in some situations, you may experience issues when you use the IFS. Because of these issues, Microsoft recommends that you remove the drive M mapping to the IFS, unless you are using the IFS for specific reasons. The ”.’backofficestorage’ namespace remains available even when you remove drive M or other drive letter mappings.
Some reasons to keep the IFS mapping in place are:

If you use Microsoft FrontPage Extensions for Web Storage System Forms.
For development using the drive M mapping.
If you use Microsoft Internet Explorer to search drive M as a file system.
If any of the preceding items describe your Exchange 2000 environment, Microsoft recommends that you keep the mapping in place on servers the where these conditions exist.

To remove the drive M mapping

To remove the drive M mapping, use the script that is provided here: ifsdrive_script.zip – 2kb)
After you download and extract the drive M removal script, you need to run the script from a command prompt on the Exchange 2000 server:
Open a command prompt window, and then change to the folder that you saved the script to.
At the command prompt, type the following command to remove the drive M mapping:

ifsdrive none

Note: To remove the mapping, use the actual word “none.”
As the script runs, the action that it is performing next appears. When the script is finished, “Done” appears as the last line.
Note: The script stops and starts the Exchange 2000 message transfer agent (MTA), Exchange 2000 Post Office Protocol version 3 (POP3), Exchange 2000 Internet Message Access Protocol, Version 4rev1 (IMAP4), Exchange 2000 information store, and World Wide Web Publishing services.

To restore drive M mapping

If you incorrectly remove the drive M mapping and you need it for one of the reasons listed earlier in this article, use the same script that you’ve used for the removal of the drive M mapping, and type the following command at a command prompt (where drive_letter is the letter of the IFS drive mapping):

ifsdrive drive_letter

The drive_letter is drive M by default, but if the IFS drive mapping was ever changed to a different drive letter, use the new drive letter instead.
For example:

ifsdrive m:

After you remove the IFS drive mapping, the following error message is logged in the Application event log when the Exchange 2000 Information Store service starts:
Source: ExWin32 EventID: 1 Type: Error Description: The Exchange IFS failed to map drive: ?:. Please free drive ?: to use Exchange IFS.
You can safely ignore this error message; it will be removed in later versions of Exchange 2000.
Exchange Server 2003 note: Exchange Server 2003 does not expose drive M by default. If, for any reason, you need to re-create drive M, follow instructions on the Restore the M Drive Mapping in Exchange 2003 page.

Links

Remove the IFS Mapping for Drive M in Exchange 2000 Server – 305145