ANSWER: Take your time, move slowly and always have a back-out strategy……. plus some good instructions.
Step 1: Gather information on your Exchange setup.
Step 1a: Find out what drive the transaction logs and checkpoint files are installed on.
To do this, open up the Exchange System Manager, drill down to the storage group that you want to move. Select Properties. The transaction log location is where the transaction logs are stored. The system path location is where the checkpoint files are stored.
Step 1b: Find out where the Exchange Mailbox store is located. To do this, expand the System Manager until you get to the Mailbox Store. Select Properties, and then the Database TAB.
Step 1c: Find out where the Exchange Public Folders are located. To do this, expand the System Manager until you get to the Public Folder Store. Select Properties, and then the Database TAB.
Step 2: Decide on the drive that you want to move the Exchange data to.
In this example I have chosen E drive, but your choice will vary depending on your setup.
Step 3: Back up Exchange. I will show you two ways.
Step 3a: Back up Exchange mailboxes using Exmerge.
To do this, download the latest version of Exmerge, run the self-extracting exe, and then place Exmerge.exe and Exmerge.ini into the Program Files\Exchsrvr\Bin directory.
Logged on with an account that has full Exchange Administrator credentials, open up regedit and drill down to HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Exchange\ExAdmin. Create a new DWord called ShowSecurityPage, and give it a value of 1.
Next, open up the Exchange System Manager, right click on the Organization Object, select Properties, go to the Security TAB and then scroll down to the second and third last permissions. You will discover that (by default) the Administrator, Domain Admins and Enterprise Admins have been given explicit DENY Receive As and Send As permission. Exmerge uses the Receive As and Send As permissions to function. So for Exmerge to work, you have to revoke these DENY permissions for Administrators, Domain Admins and Enterprise Admins. If you are really finniky about permissions you can set the DENY permissions back later. If you don’t mind if your Domain Admins can ‘impersonate’ anyone in their organisation then leave the DENY permissions permanently unchecked.
Before revoking the explicit DENY permissions:
After revoking the explicit DENY permissions:
Just make sure you revoke it for the Administrator AND the Domain Admins AND the Enterprise Admins.
Next, run Exmerge. At the first screen, click Next. At the second step select Extract or Import (Two Step Procedure), click Next. Select Step 1: Extract Data from the Exchange Server Mailbox, click Next. Enter the Exchange Server name and click Next. Select All Mailboxes and click Next. Set the Default Locale to English (Australia) and click Next. Change the Folder name to whatever folder you want the backed up mailboxes to go to (eg a safe location like a network drive) and click Next. Save your settings and click Next.
Make sure all mailboxes process successfully and then click Finish.
If they don’t, then look at the Exmerge.Log files, Google the error messages and resolve.
If everything went well then you should find a PST file for every user in your organization in the folder that you specified earlier.
One limitation of Exmerge is that it cannot be used to backup Public Folders. If you want to backup your Public Folders to a PST file, then log on as a user with rights to all Public Folders (eg Administrator), open up Outlook, and manually export the Public Folders to a PST using File >>> Import and Export >>> Export to a File >>> Personal Folder File (PST).
Step 3b: Back up the Raw Exchange Files.
Open up the Exchange System Manager, drill down to the Mailbox Store, right click and select Dismount Store. Do the same for the Public Folder Store.
You will get a warning message. Select Yes.
Once both stores are dismounted, copy Priv1.edb, Priv1.stm, Pub1.edb and Pub1.stm to a safe location – eg a network drive. Remember that by default they were stored in C:\Program Files\Exchsrvr\MDBdata.
Remount the Mailbox and Public Folder Stores.
Step 4: Create the target folders.
I like to be quite explicit in my folder names. If I was moving the Exchange data to E drive, then here are the folders I would create:
E:\Exchange Data
E:\Exchange Data\Transaction Logs
E:\Exchange Data\Checkpoint Files
E:\Exchange Data\MDBData
Step 5: Move the Exchange Transaction Logs.
Open up the Exchange System Manager, drill down to the First Storage Group, right click, Properties. Click the Browse button next to the Transaction Log Location and select E:\Exchange Data\Transaction Logs.
You will get a warning message stating that Exchange will be temporarily offline. Click OK.
Step 6: Move the Checkpoint Files.
Open up the Exchange System Manager, drill down to the First Storage Group, right click, Properties. Click the Browse button next to the System Path Location and select E:\Exchange Data\Checkpoint Files.
You will get a warning message stating that Exchange will be temporarily offline. Click OK.
Step 7: Move the Exchange databases.
Open up the Exchange System Manager, drill down to the Mailbox Store, right click, Properties. Select the database TAB. Click the Browse button next to Exchange Database: and select E:\Exchange Data\MDBData. Do the same for the Exchange Streaming Database.
You will get a warning message stating that Exchange will be temporarily offline. Click OK.
Repeat the above process for the Public folder store as well.
Step 8: Clean up after yourself.
Once you are convinced that everything is ok you can clean up after yourself. Delete the Exmerged and Raw backup data. Return the Receive As and Send As rights to their original settings. Delete the ShowSecurityPage DWord from the registry. Delete the Exmerge executables from the Program Files\Exchsrvr\Bin directory.
And then you are all done!! Hope this helps.