Symantec has created a way in which they can restore a single email message with Backup Exec. This technology is called a GRT (Granular Restore Technology). I’ve used it in Backup Exec 11D and 12. I’ve found that it proves to be more of a pain than a help because:

  1. You cannot backup to disk and encrypt the backup (At least using Symantec’s built-in encryption)
  2. When using a removable back-up-to-disk device to backup, it creates folder that begins with IMG ,instead of storing the backups under the “veritas” folder on the removable back-up-to-disk device.
  3. The system won’t automatically overwrite/delete the GRT backups on removable-back-up-to-disk drives. Instead the drive will simply run out of space.

I’ve found that Microsoft Exchange can take care of most of the granularity that we need. Exchange can be configured to keep deleted items so many days. To find this setting in Microsoft Exchange 2003, log into your exchange server. Open the Microsoft Exchange “System Manager”. Now expand Administrative Groups->Your Domain->Servers->Your Server Name->Your Storage Group . Now right click on a “Mailbox Store” and click “properties”. Click the “Limits” tab. Adjust the “Keep Deleted Items for (days)”. Also note this is only specific to this information store. If you have a server with multiple information stores, you’ll need to adjust them all separately.

Deletion Settings for Microsoft Exchange 2003

To recover an individual item you’ll need to set Outlook to show Recover Deleted Items . As the previous link instructs, click start->run. Type “regedit”. Browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Exchange\Client\Options . On the Edit menu, click Add Value, and then add the following registry value:

Value name: DumpsterAlwaysOn
Data type: DWORD
Value data: 1

Close the registery editor and close and reopen Outlook. Under the Tools menu, you should now have a “Recover Deleted Items” option. Now you can use the “Recover Deleted Items” in Outlook to get back any item that has been deleted in the last X-days (You set this yourself inside of Exchange). This is MUCH easier than dealing with Symantec’s GRT technology.

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