Microsoft Exchange Server is a platform for messaging and it has many unique features such as collaborative sharing, Exchange online, secure working environment, etc. There are two different ways to store the information in an Exchange Server such as private information (Priv1.edb) store database and public information (Pub1.edb) store database. EDB is an Exchange Database file, which is designed on single client server architecture. The file stores an important mailbox data items such as emails, tasks, calendars, folders, attachments, notes, etc. In this blog, we discuss about the scenarios of EDB to PST Conversion.

Main scenarios which tends to EDB to PST Conversion:

If the Exchange Server is under Maintenance and the process will take a long time.

When the Exchange Server fails to perform any task.

If the organization is migrating exchange.

When user transfer Exchange data from one place to another.

Method 1: With the help of Microsoft free utility i.e ExMerge.exe, which is used to convert Exchange EDB 2003 to PST

This tool provided by Microsoft to check and remove any issue in a MS Exchange server database. This tool has many benefits such as it prevent duplicacy, used in brick level backup to store the copy of all singles as well as multiple mailboxes, etc.

Note: First install the ExMerge.exe utility in your system. You can only install this utility, if the system has MS Exchange Server as well as Admin tools of Exchange Server.

Step 1: Install and configure the ExMerge.exe utility in your system. Then, start the utility and log in to Exchange server. After that Microsoft Exchange Mailboxes Merge wizard will display and then click Next button and start the procedure.

Step 2: Now, choose the procedure which you want to perform in the Microsoft Exchange Mailbox Merge Wizard. The procedures are One Step Procedure or Two Step Procedure.

Step 3: Here, you need to select the 2nd one so, click on Extract or Import (Two Step Procedure) and click Next.

Step 4: Now in two step procedure, select either Step 1 or Step 2. Here, you need to select Step 1 is Extract data from an Exchange Server mailbox and click Next.

Step 5: A new dialog box will display i.e Data Selection Criteria, now click on Import Procedure and Archive data to target store. Click OK.

Step 6: Now, click on Message Details and enter all the mandatory information there. Click OK.

Step 7: After that, you will see the list of all mailboxes which are consist in the selected server. Now, select the mailboxes which you want to export and click Next.

Step 8: Choose the desired location where you want to save the PST files and confirm the location by clicking on Change Folder button. Click Next, it will display the Process status.

Step 9: Once the process completed, click on Finish.

Notes:

This utility failed, if you are using MS Exchange Server 2007.

The above method is long and time consuming.

Method 2: Using PowerShell Command Line Tool, this is available for Exchange versions 2007, 2010, and 2013

Note: This method only beneficial to those users who have a good knowledge of PowerShell command line tool. A PowerShell is a command line tool which is used to build up of scripting language on .net framework.

Step 1: Use the following command to add Snap-in in PowerShell:

Add-PSSnapin microsoft.exchange.management.powershell.e2010

Step 2: Create a separate folder to save the converted PST files from EDB and give any name to the folder.

Step 3: Now, right click on the folder it will show you the Properties -> select the Share Folder.

Step 4: Assign the Read/Write permission and click Share button.

Step 5: Now, copy the path of shared folder and save the path name in the notepad.

Step 6: Now, on a PowerShell, run command below and after completion of this task check the converted PST files in the folder. Here, MailboxName is the name of mailbox that you want to export and EnterFilePath, path of folder where you want to store the PST file.

New-MailboxExportRequest –Mailbox MailboxName –FilePath EnterFilePath

The command line alter with the MS Exchange server version such as

MS Exchange 2007 to PST: Use Export-Mailbox

MS Exchange 2010 to PST: Use ExportMailboxRequests

MS Exchange 2013 to PST: Use New-MailboxExportRequest command

Method 3: By using Exchange Admin Center (EAC) to export 2013 mailbox to PST

Step 1: First, create a Shared Folder where you want to export the mailbox. Also, keep few important points in mind while creating the shared folder:

Location should be in a partition but other than Drive C.

Do not create the folder on a disk where the Database or Log files exist.

Create clean-up script to remove the files in a future.

Step 2: Set Shared and Security level, by clicking on the Permission tab.

Step 3: Assign Export Permission to Mailbox, follow the below steps to assign the permission.

Open EAC using Organization management and click Permission. Double click on Recipient Management and click on Add in the top of Role

in the top of Now in the page of Select a Role, click on Mailbox Import Export option -> Add ( bottom left hand side) -> OK.

click on option bottom left hand side) Click Add in the Roles section and select Mailbox Import Export in a new page. Click Add -> OK.

Step 4: After that Export Mailbox data into PST, follow the below steps to do that.

Open EAC, choose Mailboxes and a list of mailboxes will display. Select the mailboxes which you want to export into PST.

choose and a list of mailboxes will display. Select the mailboxes which you want to export into PST. Right click on the mailbox and select Export to a PST file. Click on Browse to select the mailbox and click

Click on to select the mailbox and click You can find the path of exported mailboxes using syntax: \\server\folder\ExportFile.pst .

Click Finish, once the process completed.

If the above methods did not helped you to convert your EDB files into PST then you can use any professional Email Converter such as EDB to PST Converter. But, I recommend you to first follow the manual steps, which I have mentioned here.