Restoring individual mailbox and mailbox item-level data

Use Data Protection for Exchange to restore mailboxes and mailbox data.

Follow these instructions to restore an Exchange Server mailbox or mailbox items.

1. Start the Management Console and select Exchange Server in the tree view.
2. In the Recover tab for the Exchange instance, and change the selected view to Mailbox Restore.
3. Select one or more mailboxes to restore. A list of mailboxes that are backed up is displayed. If you are restoring a mailbox that was deleted or re-created since the time of the backup, enter a mailbox with sufficient space to temporarily store the messages during the restore. This mailbox is set by using the Alias of temporary mailobx option from the Properties page, under the General tab.
4. Optional: By default, Data Protection for Exchange restores the most current backup available for the specified mailbox. If you want to restore data to a different point in time, use the Backup Date option to select an earlier date and time. When you specify a backup date, Data Protection for Exchange looks for a backup with that exact date. If a backup with that exact date is not found, Data Protection for Exchange looks for and selects the first backup after that date. For example, if you have a backup at 9:51 and a backup at 10:09, and you specify 10:00, Data Protection for Exchange selects the backup at 10:09. This backup is selected so the software does not miss any messages. If the backup at 9:51 was selected, the software would miss messages from 9:51 to 10:00.

   By default, the entire mailbox is restored. Use the Item-Level Mailbox Filters to identify individual messages to restore.

   1. Click Show Filter Options and Add Row.
   2. Click the down arrow in the Column Name field and select an item to filter. You can filter by Backup Date, Folder Name, Subject Text, Sender Name, Message Body Text, All Content, Attachment Name, and Received Date. When restoring to a Unicode .pst file, except for the Folder Name and All Content filters, the filters are ignored.

      When you click All Content, the mailbox items are filtered by attachment name, sender, subject, and message body.

      To filter by Backup Date, click the default date and time to edit the table cell. To change the date, click the drop-down icon that is displayed at the end of the cell. The calendar date selection tool is displayed. After you select a date, to display the date in the field, press Enter. To edit the time, enter the time using the 12-hour clock time convention.

   3. Select an operator in the Operator field.
   4. Specify a value to filter on in the Value field.
   5. In you want to filter on more items, click Add Row.
5. Verify restore options. If the restore options are not currently displayed, click Show Restore Options.

   Mailbox

   If the alias of the mailbox to restore is not displayed in the list of mailboxes, specify the alias. This option overrides any selected mailboxes.

   Mark restored messages as unread

   Use this option to automatically mark the mailbox messages as unread after restore operation completes. The default value is True.

   Mailbox Original Location

   Use this option only if the mailbox is deleted or recreated since the time of the selected backup, and mailbox history is disabled. Specify the Exchange Server and the database where the mailbox is at the time of the backup. Use the following format: server-name,db-name

6. Click one of the Restore actions in the Action pane to begin the restore operation.

   Restore Mail to Original Location

   Select this action to restore the mail back to where the mail items existed at the time of backup.

   Restore Mail to Alternate Location

   Select this action to restore the mail items to a different mailbox. A dialog is displayed for you to specify the mailbox

   Restore Mail to non-Unicode PST file

   Select this action to restore the mail items to a non-Unicode personal folders (.pst) file. When you restore to a .pst file with one selected mailbox, you are prompted for a file name. When you restore to a .pst file with more than one selected mailbox, you are prompted for a directory location. Each mailbox is restored to a separate .pst file that bears the name of the mailbox at the specified directory.

   If the .pst file exists, the file is used. If it does not exist, the file is created.

   Restore Mail to Unicode PST file

   Select this action to restore the mail items to a Unicode personal folders (.pst) file. When you restore to a .pst file with one selected mailbox, you are prompted for a file name. When you restore to a .pst file with more than one selected mailbox, you are prompted for a directory location.

   You can enter a standard path name (for example, c:\PST\mailbox.pst) or a UNC path (for example, \\server\c$\PST\mailbox.pst). When you enter a standard path, the path is converted to a UNC path. If the UNC is a non-default UNC path, enter the UNC path directly.

   Each mailbox is restored to a separate .pst file that bears the name of the mailbox at the specified directory. If the .pst file exists, the file is used. If it does not exist, the file is created.

   The amount of time that it takes to complete the restore process depends on the size of the mailbox databases, the network speed, and the number of mailboxes to process.