Ntbackup is not successful and event 904 error 0xC7FE1F42 is logged

If you attempt to restore an information store on a server that is running Exchange 2000 Server or Exchange Server 2003, the following errors are logged in Event Viewer:

Following are two possible causes for this behavior:

Cause 1

The Mailbox store or Public Folder store names do not exactly match. Event 8012 specifies the expected store name in the "additional data" section of the log.

Cause 2

You are using Windows Small Business Server, and DNS is configured incorrectly.

Use one of the following methods to resolve this behavior.

Method 1

Use this method for Cause 1 in the "Cause" section. Create a Mailbox or Public Folder store with the name that is specified in the "additional data" section in the 8012 event.

Note If you are running Exchange 2000 Standard edition you will not be able to create an additional database in order to work around this issue. In this case you can use the ADSI Edit tool to modify the value that is preventing the restore. To do this, perform the following steps:

1. Open ADSI Edit.
2. Click to expand Configuration, expand Services, expand Microsoft Exchange, expand Organization Name, expand Administrative Groups, expand Admin Group Name, expand Servers, expand ServerName, and then expand Information Store.
3. Right click the Store which is incorrectly named and enter the value from the 8012 event.

Method 2

Use this method for Cause 2 in the "Cause" section. Configure the DNS settings on the computer that is running Windows Small Business Server to point to the correct internal DNS server. The DNS server may be the computer that is running Windows Small Business Server itself. To set the primary DNS server, follow these steps:

1. Click Start, point to Control Panel, and then click Network Connections.
2. Right-click the internal network connection, and then click Properties.
3. Click to select Internet Protocol (TCP/IP), and then click Properties.
4. To change the preferred DNS server, type the IP address of the correct DNS server in the Preferred DNS Server box.
5. Click OK two times.

For additional information about how to configure DNS, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

The most common cause for the behavior that is described in Cause 1 in the "Cause" section occurs when you perform a restore in a lab environment. Sometimes, although you may correctly set up the ORG/ADMIN Group/ Storage group names, you may not create the correct Mailbox Public Store name.

To test this, get an LDP dump of the production Mailbox/Public Store object and compare it to the lab store object. All the distingushedName attribute values must match, with one exception: the server name value (the fourth value) can differ.

The following example of restore describes a scenario in which the error mentioned in the "Symptoms" section of this article would occur:

1. Backup a Mailbox store that has the following DistinguishedName:
   CN=MailboxStore(Server1),CN=Test_Storage_Group,CN=InformationStore,CN=SERVER1,CN=Servers,CN=ADMIN_GROUP,CN=Administrative Groups,CN=Microsoft,CN=Microsoft Exchange,CN=Services,CN=Configuration,DC=DOMAIN,DC=com
2. Attempt to restore to a lab server with a Mailbox store DistinguishedName:
   CN=MailboxStore(Server2),CN=Test_Storage_Group,CN=InformationStore,CN=SERVER2,CN=Servers,CN=ADMIN_GROUP,CN=Administrative Groups,CN=Microsoft,CN=Microsoft Exchange,CN=Services,CN=Configuration,DC=DOMAIN,DC=com
3. This will fail because CN=MailboxStore(Server2) does not equal CN=MailboxStore(Server1).