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Deleted Item Recovery and Data Security
Be Calm. Here's what you need to know.
People are always asking us if we do
backups. Good grief. Of course we do. We're not playing
around here, we're serious about this business. Plus,
we've been offering Exchange Hosting since 1998, and we
haven't lost any data yet. You are well protected
against the unlikely event of server-related disaster.
But often when people ask about backups,
what they really want to know is whether we can help
when they accidentally delete something. This page will
explain the issues involved and answer that question.
First the bad news. The current Exchange
server backup system is an all-or-nothing disaster
recovery system. If we lose a server, we can recreate
it. But this system does not give us the luxury of
browsing through historical points in time and finding
particular items that have been deleted.
Now the good news. Exchange provides a
deleted item retention period. It is configured for 10
days. So generally speaking, you can recover things that
have been deleted within the past 10 days.
Here's how it works. When you delete an
item from your inbox, calendar or other mailbox folder,
it goes into the deleted items folder in your mailbox.
Normally, it will stay there until you delete it from
that folder.
Here are some exceptions to that.
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Outlook can be configured to empty the
deleted items folder every time you close Outlook. |
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Outlook's auto-archive feature can be
configured to periodically delete the items in
your deleted items folder. |
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Accessing your mailbox with a non-Exchange
Internet mail client such as Outlook Express, can
cause items in your inbox to be "permanently"
deleted, bypassing the deleted items folder. |
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Holding down the Shift key while deleting
an item causes it to be "permanently" deleted,
bypassing the deleted items folder. |
After you delete items from the deleted
items folder, or "permanently" delete them, then the
clock starts to run on the 10-day deleted item recovery
period. During the 10 day period, items can normally be
recovered using the deleted item recovery feature.
After the 10 day period, what's gone is gone.
Here's how to use the Recover Deleted
Items feature.
- You might need to go to the View menu
in Outlook and choose Folder List in order to see your
deleted items folder. Click the deleted items folder
in the folder list to select it. Its contents will be
displayed. The presence of entire folders will be
indicated by a plus sign next to the deleted items
folder icon.
- If the item or folder you need is not
in your deleted items folder, go to the Tools menu and
choose Recover Deleted Items. The Recover Deleted
Items window will appear.
- Select the items you want to recover
and click the Recover Selected Items button. They will
be restored to the deleted items folder.
Public Folders
When you delete something from a public
folder, it does not go into anyone's deleted items
folder. It is "permanently" deleted immediately.
In order to recover items from a public
folder, first select the public folder which contained
those items, then choose Recover Deleted Items from the
Tools menu.
In order to recover an entire public
folder, select the parent folder which contained it,
then choose Recover Deleted Items from the Tools menu.
Please note, there was a known issue
(bug) with Exchange 2000 relative to recovering entire
public folders that had been deleted. Unfortunately, it
usually did not work. When you tried, it threw up an
error message about inadequate permissions, even though
the permissions were adequate. It was important for
users to be aware of this limitation, and plan
accordingly.
Our testing indicates this bug has been
corrected in Exchange 2003. We have successfully deleted
and recovered entire public folders. Nonetheless, we
think you would be wise to avoid betting your life on
the ability to recover deleted public folders. See the
tips below and make sure you always have backup copies
of important folders.
Data Security - A Word To The
Wise
Here are some technical tips for how to
protect your company against accidental deletion of
important Exchange server data.
- Periodically drag and drop a copy of
your important public folders into a pst file and
store the pst file in a safe place, such as a CD-ROM.
See tech support on working with Outlook Data Files (pst
files). Drag with the right mouse button, not the
left, so you get the choice of move or copy. If the
folders are large, it is important to do this while
you're working offline, so it goes at the speed of
your machine, not the speed of your network
connection. See Working
Offline for details on that.
- Reduce permissions on all public
folders, especially your top level public folder. When
your organization is created at Exchange Hosting
Service, the All ... Recipients group will be given
Owner permissions on your top level public folder.
This means anyone in your group could potentially
delete that folder, and everything in it, which means
all your public folders and everything they contain.
- Give people only the permissions they
need. Only your lead person should have more than
read-only on your top level public folder. Right click
any folder, choose properties, then permissions to see
the controls. They are very specific and easily
adjustable.
- Be aware that an offline folder file
(ost file) is not the same as a personal folder file
(pst file). Recovering data from a pst file is as
simple as drag and drop. Recovering data from an
offline folder file, if that data has been deleted
from the server, can sometimes only be accomplished
with special tools at great expense. There are
companies on the Internet who will perform this
service for several hundred dollars.
- If you discover that important data
has been deleted from the server, and you know it
still exists in someone's offline folder file, do not
connect to the server with that machine. Do not even
connect that machine to the Internet. Make a copy of
the ost file immediately. Start Outlook and work
offline. Create a pst file on that machine and drag a
copy of the folders into the pst file. Be aware, once
that machine connects to the server, it will request
updates and changes, and the server will instruct it
to delete the data from the ost file.
See the following resources relative to
backing up your Outlook data:
Working
with Personal Folders
Using the Personal Folders Backup Tool
Congratulations. By choosing Exchange
Hosting Service, you have taken a big step toward
keeping your data safe. If you go even further and
follow the steps outlined above, you will greatly reduce
the likelihood of ever finding yourself in the position
of having lost important data.
Thank you for your confidence, and for doing your part.
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