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The first thing I went to do was backup Server B (the existing WinNT Exchange server) to tape. And that's the first problem I encountered. There was only one tape drive left from the theft of the servers and other equipment. It wasn't attached to a server yet, so it wasn't available for me to use. So, instead of doing a "real" backup, I shut down Exchange Administrator, stopped the Service Attendant (which, of course, stopped all the other Exchange Services) and merely copied the priv, pub and dir.edb files to another location on the network -- right next to the restored files for Server A. Then I wrote down the site and org name for later, when I had to rebuild things.

The next thing I did was to find the priv, pub and dir.edb files from the Server A restore. Since that had been taken from an online backup, all the transactions had been committed, so I thought I was set to go. I followed the instructions for an OFFLINE restore from the Exchange Server Disaster Recovery White Paper (which can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/techinfo/disaster.htm). In summary, those directions tell you to:

Make sure the Exchange services are stopped

Copy the Priv, Pub and Dir.edb files to the proper locations (which you know, because you documented them, right?)

Copy the directory service and information store log files to the proper locations.

START the Exchange Directory Service.

At a Command Prompt, run EXCHSRVER\BIN\isinteg -patch.

START the Information Store Service.
And it should work! Right? RIGHT????

Unfortunately, it didn't.

First of all, I couldn't start the Directory Service. And when I tried to run isinteg -patch anyway, I got The private store could not be updated. Reason : DS_E_COMMUNICATIONS_PROBLEM as the error. When I searched for that at Microsoft's support site, I found Q162354, which basically says "Don't be a dope, you have to follow the proceedures and have the Directory Service Running to make this work, you dope!" Or words to that effect.

It was at this point that I started to tear my hair out a bit. When I tried to start the Directory Service, I got that I unfortunately cannot remember, and didn't write down... if anyone knows what it is, let me know, and I'll update the page. Sorry. But. Back to our story. Here I was, supposed to be this Exchange Expert (the consulting firm's words, not mine) and I couldn't get a relatively simple operation like a restore to work.

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