Message Flow to the Local Delivery Queue Is Very Slow

E-mail messages back up in the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) queue that is bound for local delivery. Additionally, the server experiences high disk queue lengths on the Exchange Server 2003 computer installation drive. Typically, this installation drive is in the following location:

This issue may occur when the working folder that the information store uses for e-mail message conversion is located on a drive that is slow or busy.

Important This section, method, or task contains steps that tell you how to modify the registry. However, serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Therefore, make sure that you follow these steps carefully. For added protection, back up the registry before you modify it. Then, you can restore the registry if a problem occurs. For more information about how to back up and restore the registry, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: To resolve this behavior, change the working folder that the information store uses for e-mail message conversion to point to a faster drive. To do so, follow these steps:

1. Start Registry Editor.
2. Locate and then click the following key in the registry:
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\MSExchangeIS\ParametersSystem
3. In the right-side pane, double-click Working Directory:REG_SZ:Folder_Path.
4. In the String Editor box, type the path of a folder on a faster drive, and then click OK.
5. Close Registry Editor.