Question : Exchange 2003 drive no longer accesible

I have inherited a mess. I have an Exchange 2003 server that is no longer accessible because the drive it was located on now shows up in Windows 2003 server as "Unallocated Space". I am thinking the partition must have gotten messed up. The drive still spins, I tried to slave it to another computer to pull data, but it was not recognized. Anyhow this is the setup:

The server is Windows 2003 with Exchange 2003 and it is 1 of 2 domain controllers. Yaa I know you should not put Exchange on a DC but I inherited this mess. The server still boots into Win2k3 and has 2 IDE hard drives. The first HD has the Win2K3 and the second HD (Drive D:) had the Exchange install along with the info store.

It gets better, I just installed Exchange 2007 on a new server and have the routing groups setup and everything. The plan was to move the mailboxes this weekend, but I guess that is not going to happen. My question is, how should I go about recovering this. My last good full backup is from 8/24. Should I:

1) Put a new drive in the old Exchange box, reinstall Exchange 2003 to the new drive, then do a restore of the info store, then move mailboxes to Exchange 2007? Will reinstalling Exchange 2003 mess with the Exchange 2007 install?

2) Is there a way to fix the messed up HD

3) Can I restore the info store to a blank hard drive and then somehow import it into the Exchange 2007? What steps would I need to take in order to do this?

4) Anyone have any other suggestions...

Answer : Exchange 2003 drive no longer accesible

Hi,

Sounds like the partition info got blown out. I would put the HD back in the slot it was in and In disk manager, right click on the drive, and select the make the partition active option. If it's not an option or does not work,  then put in a new drive, format it and test to make sure that it was the drive and not the controller, cable, or other problem with the system. Consider 3rd party partition recovery software if you want to pursue that road. Search for "recover partition" on EE for many suggestions.

If the HD really is bad, I would install a new HD, make sure it's the same drive letter as the old one, and do a reinstall of exchange. This method will install exchange in a way that it's ready to accept a restore of the info store when the reinstall is finished:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa997239(EXCHG.65).aspx