Fixing 'Unable to Mount the Mailbox Store with error c104173c …' error in Exchange Server

Information store is the most vital component of Microsoft Exchange. When the Exchange Server is hit by corruption issues, information store also gets affected. It is made up of four database files viz Priv1.edb, Priv1.stm, Pub1.edb and Pub1.stm. When corruption occurs either Prive1.edb or Pub1.edb falls prey to it. In event of corruption, an Exchange administrator can observe various symptoms including the MS Exchange Information Store service won't start, or clients cannot send or retrieve e-mails or abrupt error messages. In order to isolate the issues, the administrator must use the updated backup copy of the database. However, if no backup is available, he should immediately switch to MS Exchange Repair solutions.

Consider a scenario, wherein, you, being the administrator, try to mount the mailbox store in Exchange System Manager, and receive the following error message:

“Unable to Mount the Mailbox Store with error c104173c The Information Store is Busy”

Cause

The above error indicates the possible corruption in one or both edb files (Priv1.edb or Pub1.edb) of information store.

Resolution

In order to troubleshoot the issue, you must perform the following Exchange Repair steps:

1. Run eseutil/mh command in order to determine if the database is consistent
2. If you get the following output 'Clean Shutdown' , move out all the log files from Exchsvrmbddata folder
3. But if you get 'Dirty Shutdown' as output, perform soft recovery by using eseutil/r
4. If database does not come to a consistent state, perform hard repair by using eseutil/p command.
5. If you use the above command, you may lose some Exchange Server data, including the messages that were contained in the log files that were not committed to the information store database. Therefore, it is a wise decision to use a third-party MS Exchange Repair application.

Such tools repair corrupt .edb files safely and employ improved scanning algorithms to recover inaccessible data in a hassle-free manner. Being-read only they do not modify the original content. Therefore, you can use them blindly and isolate the information store corruption issues efficiently.

Stellar Phoenix Mailbox Exchange Recovery is a powerful and reliable application which repairs corrupt .edb files and restores the mailboxes as individual PSTs. Compatible with Exchange Server 5.5, 2000, 2003, and 2007, this Exchange repair software recovers all e-mail messages, notes, journals, tasks, contacts and other components.

Repairing oversized corrupt EDB file in MS Exchange Server 2003

Microsoft Exchange Server is the server-side of the client-server product by Microsoft. It provides support for emailing, calendar entries and mobile- and web-based access to exchange information. All such information is stored in an EDB (Exchange Information Store Database) file. However, sometimes the EDB file can get corrupt due to which you are unable to mount the mailbox. Corruption situations can arise due to various reasons such as virus infections, human errors, database header corruption, quitting Exchange server unexpectedly, etc. In such cases, you should take appropriate corrective measures to rectify the situation. However, if you are unable to do so, then you should use a third-party Exchange Repair software to do the needful.

Consider a scenario wherein you are not able to mount Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 Standard Edition mailbox. The event ID is logged in the Application Event Log:

“Event Type: Error
Event Source: MSExchangeIS
Event Category: General
Event ID: 1112
Description: The database "Mailbox Store (Server Name)" has reached the maximum allowed size. Attempting to unmount the database.”

Cause:

The cause of this erroneous situation is that the EDB file has corrupted as its size has exceeded the permissible size of 16 GB.

Resolution:

To resolve the situation:

1. Upgrade to Exchange Server 2003 SP2 as it has got size limit of 75 GB.

2. Perform the following tasks if you are an administrator:
     a)Increase the database size limit temporarily by 1 GB.
     b)Remove the not so required database content.
     c)Defragment the database to reduce it to the permissible database size limit.

3. Mount the database in a recovery storage group by using the Recovery Storage Group feature. Then, you can use the MS Exchange Merge Wizard (Exmerge.exe) to extract the mailboxes from the database.

However, if you still are unable to resolve this issue then you should use a third-party Exchange repair software to repair the EDB file. Such tools are able to repair the EDB file without overwriting the original contents and by using fast yet sophisticated scanning algorithms.

Stellar Phoenix Mailbox Exchange Recovery is an MS Exchange repair software that enables you to repair corrupt EDB files. It scans the corrupted EDB file, repairs it, and saves it at a user-specified location. This Exchange repair software recovers different mailboxes in a separate PST files. This software supports Exchange Server 5.5, 2000, 2003, and 2007. It is compatible with Windows 7, Vista, Server 2003, XP, and 2000.

Troubleshooting Event Ids 9518, 9175, and 454 at MS Exchange Startup

The Event Ids in Microsoft Exchange Server form most important parts of system diagnosis. These cryptic error messages allow the user to diagnose the logging problems. While there are various reasons for the occurrence of these event id, the most important is the corruption in the 'Information Store'. For easy resolution of any event id, the user can restore the database from an updated backup. However in case of absence of an updated backup, the user requires a powerful Exchange Server Repair software to repair the database.

As a practical case, your server locks up for no reason and when you reboot, the MS Exchange 2003 does not start. On viewing the event log, you view a series of event ids:

“Event Type: Error
Event Source: MSExchangeIS
Event Category: General
Event ID: 9518
Date: 6/7/2005
Time: 5:56:43 PM
User: N/A
Computer: CRC2K3
Description:
Error Log file is corrupt starting Storage Group
/DC=local/DC=cr/CN=Configuration/CN=Services/CN=Microsoft
Exchange/CN=CityRealtyMail/CN=Administrative Groups/CN=First Administrative
Group/CN=Servers/CN=CRC2K3/CN=InformationStore/CN=First Storage Group on the
Microsoft Exchange Information Store.
Storage Group - Initialization of Jet failed.

Event Type: Error
Event Source: MSExchangeSA
Event Category: MAPI Session
Event ID: 9175
Date: 6/7/2005
Time: 6:07:09 PM
User: N/A
Computer: CRC2K3
Description:
The MAPI call 'OpenMsgStore' failed with the following error:
The Microsoft Exchange Server computer is not available. Either there are
network problems or the Microsoft Exchange Server computer is down for
maintenance.
The MAPI provider failed.
Microsoft Exchange Server Information Store
ID no: 8004011d-0526-00000000

Event Type: Error
Event Source: ESE
Event Category: Logging/Recovery
Event ID: 454
Date: 6/7/2005
Time: 5:56:43 PM
User: N/A
Computer: CRC2K3
Description:
Information Store (448) First Storage Group: Database recovery/restore
failed with unexpected error -501.”

Next, when you try to mount the 'Mailbox' or 'Public Folder', you encounter the below error message:

“The database files in this store are corrupted”

Cause:

The cause for the occurrence of the above error message is corruption of Exchange Server database.

Resolution:

To resolve the above error message and to repair the Exchange Server database, you have to use an effective Exchange Server Repair application. Such Exchange Repair utilities employ extensive scanning techniques to repair and restore corrupt Exchange Server database.

MS Exchange Repair is an answer to all logically corrupted Exchange Server databases. With recovery of deleted mailboxes, the Exchange Repair application repairs databases created in Exchange Server 5.5, 2000, 2003, and 2007. The repaired EDB file is saved in a .pst file format.

Exchange Database Corruption after Installing SP2

Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 SP2 offers new features, more reliability and easier administration over its earlier counterparts. SP2 is a cumulative update that improves the Exchange messaging environment by including improvements in mobile messaging, mailbox and protection against spam. Before you upgrade your servers to Exchange Server SP2, it is recommended that you make complete backup of system state, file system and most importantly, Exchange databases. This assures of data availability in case the installation goes wrong in any way. But cases occur when your Exchange databases get corrupt when no clean backup is present. In such situations, you should use a powerful Exchange Server Repair product that can use safe scanning algorithms to repair a corrupted Exchange database.  

For instance, you can consider a scenario describes below:

1. You run Exchange Server 2003 SP1 or an earlier version
2. You decide to upgrade to Exchange Server 2003 SP2. During the installation of SP2, the setup failed to stop ExIFS (Exchange Installable File System) service but continues with no notice
3. After this, when you try to mount Information Store, it fails and events 470, 9519, 9518 and 104 are logged in the application log.

Cause 

The above symtoms suggest that Exchange database may have got corrupted due to installation of SP2. It can also occur if an antivirus software is scanning the Exchange databases. Solution Before making any database restoration attempts, you should make sure that Exchange databases are excluded from any antivirus scanning.

If databases appear as corrupted, you should consider these suggestions:

1.Try repairing the corrupted database by running eseutil /r command

2. If it fails, restore the database from the last backup you have

3. When no clean backup is available, you should use a Exchange Repair software.

Exchange Server Repair products are highly competent utilities with powerful scanning algorithms to repair a corrupted Exchange database. These software are infallible solutions to any issue of database inconsistencies. Equipped with graphically rich interface and options, such software provide guide you through easy to implement procedure of repairing the database.

Exchange Repair is an advanced and safe Exchange Repair utility that employs powerful scanning algorithms to repair a damaged Exchange Server database. It is compatible with Exchange Server 5.5, 2000 and 2003. It is a safe Exchange Server Repair utility with impressive set of features. The tool extracts user mailboxes in individual .pst file format files.

How to Solve Table Index Corruption in Exchange Server?

The main repository of mailbox data in Exchange Server is the .edb file that is primarily composed of b-trees. Since a b-tree is allowed to have a considerable depth, b-trees deploy indexes to permit quick data access. In Exchange EDB, there are few ancillary trees that hold table indexes to work with the main tree. If these indexes go corrupted, the entire table and sometimes, the whole database become unusable. This is what we refer as logical database corruption. In critical situations, when this type of corruption is not limited to index page corruption, you need to implement Exchange Server Repair solutions.

To understand such potential problems with Exchange database further, consider the discussed scenario and error. When using Exchange Server 2007, you can encounter event 467 logging in the application log. Additionally, on viewing the description section of the same event, you receive an error that reads similar to below:

Information Store (number) Index [index name] of table [table name] is corrupted.

This error typically indicates a corrupted index in the Exchange store. As symptoms, you might observe access violations and repeated crashes. Also, this type of corruption might go undetected for long without any symptoms. Even the Exchange-aware backup may fail to detect this corruption. Event 467 suggests logical corruption at Database (JET database engine) level and is exhibited when JET engine touches this location in the database while reporting it as event 447. For specific root causes, one needs to view the application and system log cautiously as these errors can damage your data badly.

Solution

Following suggestions can help you isolate the depicted problem:

1. If corruption is limited to index leaf pages and not with the database pages, running Eseutil /d (offline defragmentation) alone can perform Exchange Server Repair.

2. In critical problems, you may need to use ExMerge utility to move the mailboxes to a new, blank Information Store.

3. The Exchange Server might be affected from page or database level corruption together with index page corruption. In such cases, you can execute Eseutil /p and then Isinteg -fix commands as Eseutil /d command may not work. You can further use ExMerge tool to put the database again in use.

4. To avoid data loss problems due to Eseutil /p utility, it is however, recommended to opt for a safe third-party Exchange Repair utility.

The Exchange Repair is a professional utility that repairs corrupted Exchange EDB file and restores the mailboxes in separate *.pst files. The EDB Repair product is easy to use with its self-explanatory interface. Designed for Exchange Server 5.5, 2000, 2003, and 2007, the tool is also competent to recover deleted mailboxes.

How to Solve when Exchange Database Fails to Mount with (hr=0x80004005, ec=-528) Error?

Transaction log files record all the modifications to an Exchange Server database and are crucial for the proper functioning of Exchange. If you remove a log file that has not been written to the associated database, it can bring several issues, the most common being that the database may fail to mount. You can solve this problem by removing all the log files, but you first need to check the database consistency. If it exists in inconsistent state, the solution is to restore from backup or apply an EDB Repair technique. For instance, consider a scenario in Exchange Server. You try to mount a mailbox store, but the operation fails with the below error message.

JET_errBadPageLink, Database corrupted Error in Exchange Server

An Exchange Server Information Store might get corrupted due to several errors, including unexpected shutdown and network errors. Corruption might involve any database files, called .edb files, that reside in Exchsrvr\Mdbdata folder. While Information Store corruption, you might observe server behaving slowly, Information Store Service not starting or not stopping, email delivery issues and several errors showing that the database is inconsistent. You should use your backup to restore such corrupted database or run ESEUTIL utility to repair it. However, if none of the solutions works, you should use Exchange Repair Software that could repair and restore a damaged Exchange database. For an instance, consider that you run ESEUTIL /D utility to defragment your database and the process fails. When you view the Windows NT Application log of Event Viewer, you come across the below error message: