How to remove duplicate EventConfig folders

If a server is removed from a site with the Event Service running and then reinstalled in the site, duplicate copies of a Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5 EventConfig public folder may appear in the Events Root folder. These ghosted folder copies cannot be deleted through raw properties in the Exchange Server Administrator program and must be deleted using the command line utility Events.exe.

If you start the Exchange Server Setup program and select Remove All with the Event Service running, the server you are removing will appear in the drop-down lists of servers in the Exchange Server Administrator program. This happens when the deletion of the server's corresponding EventConfig public folder is not replicated to other servers before the process of removing the server is completed. When you reinstall the server in the site, duplicate or ghosted EventConfig_ServerName folders will appear in the Events Root folder beneath the Systems Folder in the Exchange Server Administrator program.

If this happens, removal of the server's second EventConfig folder can be accomplished by completing the following steps:

1. In Microsoft Windows NT, click Start, point to Programs, and then select Command Prompt to open a command window.
2. From the Command Prompt, type net stop MSExchangeES to stop the Exchange Server Event service.
3. In the Exchsrvr\Bin directory (or the directory where Microsoft Exchange Server is installed), run Events.exe /c:ServerName, (where ServerName is the name of the server that has the duplicate EventConfig or ghost folders). The command /c indicates cleanup mode. This removes the EventConfig folder from the folder hierarchy so that the server no longer appears in the Events Root folder.
   
   NOTE: When you run Events.exe, the account you are logged on as must be the service account, otherwise, a MAPI error is returned. Also note that each time you run the events /c command, it removes only one folder. So, if you have 4 event config folders for a particular server, you need to run the command a total of four times to get rid of all of the folders.
4. Restart the Event Service by typing net start MSExchangeES.
5. In the Microsoft Exchange Server Administrator program, press the F5 key to refresh the screen. The duplicate folders should no longer appear.