EDB to PST Conversion – A Few of the Most Common Reasons

Have you ever been in a situation where you needed to import your mailbox data from Exchange Server to Outlook? There are various situations where the need for EDB to PST conversion could arise. In this article, we will be discussing such most common situations.

EDB and PST are two different file types used by Microsoft Exchange Server and Microsoft Outlook respectively. EDB is the Exchange database that stores multiple user mailboxes created by Microsoft Exchange Server. In a single Exchange Server, there can be multiple EDB files. On the other hand, PST, also known as Outlook data file, is the personal storage table where Outlook stores its email messages and other mailbox data. You can configure multiple profiles in Outlook, and every profile has its own PST file.

EDB to PST Conversion. Why?

Sometimes it may happen that a user needs to import Exchange database to Outlook client. There are various situations where such needs can arise.

Exchange Database Corruption

There is almost no computer file immune to corruption, and the Exchange database is no exception. There are so many reasons that can cause corruption in your Exchange database (EDB) file. Let us suppose your Exchange database has become corrupted due to virus infection. You try to repair Exchange database but you fail to do so. You want to recover your Exchange data from the corrupt EDB file. What will do you?

 

In such a situation, you can use a professional EDB to PST Converter Tool to convert EDB to PST format even if the EDB file is corrupted. Although there are some professional recovery solutions available in the online marketplace that can repair Exchange database, they may not work up to the mark in a case of severe corruption. So it is better to convert EDB to PST format in order to recover the mailbox data from the corrupt EDB file.

Exchange Server Crashes Down

It is very common to see that an organization’s Exchange Server fails or crashes down. And there are so many reasons behind that. Let us suppose your Exchange Server has crashed down and gone for maintenance. Nobody knows how much time it will take to repair Exchange Server. Sometimes it may take just a few hours and sometimes it may take days. Under such a situation, you need to access some of your Exchange data urgently. Unfortunately, you just cannot do that because Exchange Server is under repair. What will you do?

 

You can convert EDB file into PST format so that you can easily access your mailbox data through Microsoft Outlook.

Backing Up Exchange Mailbox

In Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 and earlier versions, the user mailboxes were saved in the storage groups. It was easy to take backups for storage groups back then. In Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 and later versions, the storage groups were replaced with databases. As a result, maintaining a brick-level backup of the Exchange mailbox has become a tricky task for administrators.

 

By converting the Exchange database into Outlook data file, i.e. EDB to PST, you can easily back up your Exchange mailbox. All your Exchange mailbox data will be saved into a PST file, and you easily take a backup of your PST file.

Data Migration

Sometimes data migration can also arise the need for EDB to PST conversion. How? Let us suppose you are leaving the organization, but you want to keep your mailbox data. Or, you want to share some of your Exchange data with other clients who do not use Exchange Server. There could be more situations like this where you need to migrate your data from one place to another? How will you do that?

 

Since Microsoft Outlook is the most popular email client, you can simply convert EDB to PST file format so that you can easily access your old mailbox data without being a part of the Exchange Server. Once you convert EDB file to PST format, you can easily share it with any other user who is using Microsoft Outlook.

 

Some more reasons are given below due to which EDB to PST conversion becomes a compulsory task:

 

  • In order to reduce the mailbox size of Exchange Server, you can convert EDB to PST file format. This will also improve the performance of the Exchange Server.
  • By converting EDB to PST format, you can not only save the storage space but also avoid unnecessary expenses on infrastructure.
  • Since the EDB file is prone to corruption due to various reasons, it may get corrupted at any time without any warning. You can convert EDB to PST format in order to reduce the chances of corruption and Jet engine errors.
  • Sometimes it may happen that you need Exchange data for legal compliances, forensic investigation, and other research works. So the data should be stored as a record on a location from where it can be accessed at any time.
  • If you want to take the back up of some specific mailboxes or email messages, you can simply export them into a new PST file.

How to Convert EDB to PST?

Now the question is – how to convert EDB to PST file format? Well, there are two ways to do that:

 

  • ExMerge Utility
  • Professional EDB to PST Converter tool

Microsoft provides ExMerge utility, a freeware tool, to export Exchange mailbox data to an Outlook data file. Remember, you must have full permission on all the required mailboxes in order to export them to Microsoft Outlook. Before you can try any third party professional converter tool, you must use the ExMerge utility. If it fails or does not work, then only you should consider using a professional EDB to PST Converter tool. There are many vendors in the online marketplace which provide such software.

Conclusion

In this article, we have discussed the most common situations where an Exchange administrator or user needs to convert EDB to PST file format. In the next article, we will be discussing how to export the mailbox data from Exchange Server to Microsoft Outlook client.