XADM: Exchange Information Store Does Not Start After Online Restore

After you finish an online restore of Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5, and you try to start the information store service, you may receive the following error message: NOTE: The service-specific error code may vary.

The information store service does not start. The system attendant and directory service start without any problems.

When you view the Application Log in Event Viewer, you may find events similar to the following:
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To resolve this issue, you must first determine the information store log file location, determine which of the log are files the restoration requires, and then delete any unnecessary logs. To do this, follow these steps.

Determine Information Store Log File Location

1.	Start the Microsoft Exchange Server Administrator program.
2.	Inside the Configuration, Servers container, click your server, and then click Properties on the standard toolbar.
3.	In the Properties dialog box, click the Database Paths tab.
4.	Make a note the location of the information store transaction logs.
5.	Click Cancel.
6.	Quit the Administrator program.

Determine Which Log Files the Restoration Requires

WARNING: If you use Registry Editor incorrectly, you may cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that you can solve problems that result from using Registry Editor incorrectly. Use Registry Editor at your own risk.

1.	Click Start, and then click Run.
2.	In the Open box, type regedit, and then click OK.
3.	In Registry Editor, locate the following subkey in the registry: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\MSExchangeIS\RestoreInProgress NOTE: The RestoreInProgress registry key maintains information about the restore environment during the restore process. This information includes tracking the Exchange Server transaction log files.
4.	Notice the list of log files in the right pane, and then make a note of the first and last log files that appear in this list. This represents the range of log files that you have to have to complete the restore. For example, if the lowest log file listed is Edb00001.log and the highest log file listed is Edb00005.log, the log files that you must have to finish the restoration are Edb00001.log, Edb00002.log, Edb00003.log, Edb00004.log, and Edb00005.log.
5.	Quit Registry Editor.

Remove Unnecessary Log Files

1.	Start Windows Explorer.
2.	Locate the folder that you noted in step 4 of the "Determine Information Store Log File Location" procedure.
3.	Select the Edb.chk file, and select all the log files in this folder that have names that start with "Edb" except those you noted in step 4 of the "Determine Which Log Files the Restoration Requires" procedure earlier.
4.	Right-click the selected files and then click Cut.
5.	On the File menu, point to New, and then click Folder.
6.	Type Temp, and then press ENTER.
7.	Right-click the Temp folder, and then click Paste.
8.	Quit Windows Explorer.
9.	Start the information store service.

For additional information, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: