>why the accounts could be restored but the stored mail could not be >restored.
Because they had a userbase backup (it can be stored in the local registry, but was more likely in a remote SQL database), but no backup of the actual mailbox directories, which are stored locally on the server. >if anyone could offer some explanation or insight into what kind of >cataclysmic meltdown could have occurred on this server They might have had non-redundant disk storage (a no-no) and blown a hard drive; perhaps lost an array controller which for some reason they could not replace, thus denying them access to the data on the drives even though it was basically intact; or experienced some other kind of array-wide corruption. > why the accounts could be restored but the stored mail could not be > restored Because they weren't backing up your mailboxes at all, or weren't verifying their backups appropriately and had a bunch of useless DLTs, thus forcing them to start from scratch. This is the only real, preventable area. I can't pass judgment on them, not knowing the inside story, but I would always have at least a cold-spare server and a known-good backup on hand for such circumstances. (Of course, there are many higher levels of fault tolerance, such as clustering, which could also have been put in place, but those aren't obligatory unless an SLA says they're in there.) Sandy Please visit http://www.ipswitch.com/support/mailing-lists.html to be removed from this list. An Archive of this list is available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/imail_forum%40list.ipswitch.com/
