Creating an Exchange Test Enviroment without Data

If you want to create a test/development enviroment for exchange with all you users but without the headache of the GBs of rubbish users call email?

This method is designed if you have imaged your server, minus the data to a Virtual Machine, I recommend the free VMWare server if you are unlucky like me to not have a ESX server hand..

Unfortunately Exchange will fail to start the Store service if your databases are missing. So you need to create an empty one, however without the store service running, Exchange System Manager wont come to the party....

Follow the steps below to get the service started and the store databases created:

1. Right click on each of the mailbox stores and check the option "Do not mount this store on startup"
2. Start the Exchange Information store service, it should now start...
3. Right click on each of the stores and click on Mount, you will be prompted to create an empty store, click Yes to do so.
4. Right click on the store and uncheck the option "Do not mount this store on startup".
5. Enjoy your new enviroment.