XADM: How To Use ESEUTIL /U to Upgrade a Database

If you have an Exchange Server database file (Priv.edb, Pub.edb, or Dir.edb) from Exchange Server 4.0 or 5.0, you can use the ESEUTIL utility to manually upgrade the database to an Exchange Server 5.5 database. This is particularly useful if the only good backup you have for your Exchange Server computer is from a previous version of Exchange Server.

In order to perform the upgrade using ESEUTIL, you will need the following files:

• The Exchange 5.5 version of Eseutil.exe
• The Exchange 5.5 version of Ese.dll
• The previous version database file (Priv.edb, Pub.edb or Dir.edb)
• The Edb.dll from the Exchange 5.5 CD. This file can be found in the server\setup\<platform> directory on the Exchange 5.5 CD.

Put all of these files into a directory on your hard drive, open an MS-DOS command prompt in that directory, and run the following command: where the <database name> is either Priv.edb, Pub.edb, or Dir.edb.

*NOTE: There is no space after the /d switch.

**NOTE: If you do not use the correct version of Edb.dll, you will receive the following error: