Run ESEUTIL for EDB Repair

Read time 3 min

Eseutil.exe is a command line tool provided by Microsoft Corporation to let you fix the issues that occur in Exchange Server due to database corruption. However, you need to use various switches with the eseutil command in order to repair the damaged Exchange database file. The most common switch used to repair the damaged Exchange database with eseutil command is /p.

However, when using the eseutil /p command to deal with the damaged Exchange database file, you must consider the following points:

• Both EDB and STM files should reside in the same folder or you must have to explicitly specify the location of STM file.
• The hard disk drive on which EDB and STM files are available must have sufficient space to store the temporary database files that will be created during the repair process. The space near about 20%-40% than the size of damaged database is suggested.

When using eseutil /p command to repair the damaged Exchange database file, you may face the following issues:

• STM file is missing
• EDB and STM files do not match

Whenever these issues occur repairing process does not complete; therefore, you must resolve these issues to repair the database. Let us now see how to deal with the specified issues.

• STM file is Missing: The STM file can get destroyed due to severe database corruption. In that situation, the eseutil /p command cannot complete the database repair due to which data cannot be recovered from the damaged database. However, if an appropriate switch is used with the eseutil /p command then the process of database repairing can be completed with the loss of the data that STM file contains. Following command helps you repair the damaged database file even when the STM file is missing:
  Eseutil /p <db_name> /createstm
• EDB and STM files do not match: Sometimes due to severe database corruption, synchronization between EDB and STM files get disturbed due to which the eseutil /p command ends the repairing process in very start. This is because in the start of repairing process the utility checks for the synchronization between the EDB and STM files and if files are not synchronized then the process ends abruptly. After the process has been stopped, you should check that whether the files are at the same location or not. If the files are not at the same location, place them at the same location and restart the repairing process. It may also happen that the STM file has been deleted. In that case, you can force the eseutil /p command to ignore the STM file. Following command helps you repair the damaged database file without including STM file in the repairing process:
  Eseutil /p <db_name> /I

After you have completed executing the eseutil /p command, perform the following processes:

1. Perform full backup of the repaired database.
2. Defragment the repaired database using eseutil /d command.
3. Execute the isinteg fix command to finish the repairing process.

The aforementioned processes are recommended to be performed after the execution of the eseutil /p command. However, you can skip these processes to save the recovery time but the data recovered may be less than the data you can recover after executing these processes.

The eseutil.exe command line utility works best in case the corruption is less. But, if the corruption is more, then eseutil.exe fails to repair the damaged database file. At that time, Kernel for Exchange Server helps you to perform exchange repair for the badly corrupted Exchange database files. The software completely scans the damaged database file and performs Exchange recovery. You can use the Kernel for Exchange Server software to recover mailboxes from the damaged database file created with MS Exchange Server version 5.0, 5.5, 2000, 2003, or 2007.