How to Use Eseutil /p Hard Recovery in Exchange 2016, 2013
It is fairly interesting to observe how plenty of the organizations work on the Exchange server but still it is not free from errors. There can be various causes of Exchange disasters such as Missing log files, Exchange Dirty Shutdown State, Exchange Database Corruption, or not enough free space on the Exchange server. To fix these issues, the administrator uses Eseutil /p Hard Recovery or Eseutil /r Soft Recovery depending on the corruption level.
In Microsoft Exchange Environment, Database corruption can occur due to various reasons, but the recovery of mailbox items without any data loss becomes a challenging task. If you don’t know how to run eseutil hard recovery in Exchange 2013, 2016, then we will provide you with a detailed guide with all the required steps.
Important Note – If you are planning to perform a hard recovery on your Exchange database to get it back into a Clean Shutdown state. Then you must keep in mind that it can cause crucial data loss of your mailbox data as it will delete all the irrecoverable data from the database. If you can’t compromise with your data and need a sure-shot solution, then you can directly jump to the trusted solution discussed below.
Eseutil Hard Recovery in Exchange Environment
The Hard Recovery is performed through the Backup file, for that we can restore the last backup again into Exchange production again. On another hand, we can use Eseutil /p to perform Hard recovery in Exchange 2013 / 2016 environment.
If you have selected the “last backup set” option then hard recovery is processed automatically. Moreover, it does not need any checkpoint file; it only requires a restore.env file for recovery.
Basically, hard recovery is the transaction log file replay process that is quite similar to the Soft Recovery process, but there are some differences between them. In Eseutil hard recovery:
- It is required to apply the patch information to the Exchange database during the log file replay process.
- Restore.env file is used instead of checkpoints to find out the data from the log file.
- The process does not fail in the case of the unavailability of the storage group.
- The recovered log files replay first from a temporary folder which is designated by the Exchange administrator before the restore process.
How to Use Run Eseutil Hard Recovery in Exchange
To know more about Restore.env File: Visit Link
Structure of Restore.ENV File
We can use Eseutil/ CC Command to replay the logs stored in a restore.env file using Exchange Management Shell:
Use Command:
C:\Program Files \Exchsrvr\bin>eseuitl /cc “C:\Temp\First Storage Group”
Basically, this file holds information about the Source and Target Database and restore options details. This information is used to adjust the file names so that the data can be selected targeted storage group. Exchange Administrator also uses eseutil /p to perform Hard Recovery in Exchange Environment.
Please keep this as your last option, as this command can lead to permanent data loss.
Use Command:
ESEUTL /P <path_to_the_database>
Ex: C:\Program Files \Exchsrvr\bin>eseuitl /p “ “C:\program Files\Exchangesver\1643455454.edb”
Best Procedure to Perform Hard Recovery in Exchange 2016, 2013, 2010
There are only two ways using which you can get rid of corruption issues and repair Exchange EDB files. The first one is a hard recovery method that involves high chances of data loss and isn’t recommended by experts. Due to the data loss chances, most of the experts and Exchange admins opt for a secure Exchange Mailbox Recovery Software.
This smart solution has two scan options i.e. Quick and Advance Scan. Whenever you have an Exchange database that is highly corrupted and requires hard recovery, then use the Advanced Scan mode of the tool and get the file back into a healthy state in just a few clicks.
Additionally, the software makes sure that no data loss takes place during the process. You can try the free demo version of the software and generate a preview of your mailbox data to check if all your data is back or not.
Conclusion
Eseutil is quite a useful utility provided by Microsoft to perform recovery on inaccessible Exchange database. However, in cases of high-level corruption, the only option that you are left with is eseutil hard recovery or eseutil /p command. The major drawback of this option is that it can lead to permanent data loss. Thus, to prevent data loss issue, a perfect automated solution is also provided to the users.