6.17. Shrinking a Database That Exceeds the 16 GB Size Limit for Standard Edition
Problem
You have the Standard Edition of Exchange 2000 or Exchange Server 2003, and your mailbox database has reached the 16 GB limit so it keeps dismounting.
Solution
Using a graphical user interface
Open the Registry Editor (regedit.exe).
Navigate to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\MSExchangeIS Beneath that key, you'll see a key with the name of your Exchange server; expand it.
Under the Exchange server key, you'll see a key whose name is comprised of the word "Private" plus a long hexadecimal number.
Add a new REG_DWORD value named
TemporaryDBSizeLimitExtension; give it a value of1. This temporarily increases the size limit for the mailbox database to 17 GB.Optionally, stop the SMTP service to keep new mail from being delivered from the outside world and pushing your store over its new limit.
Mount your mailbox store, as described in Recipe 6.7.
Remove unneeded or unwanted data from the mailbox database. This usually involves emptying the Deleted Items folder and throwing away old mail, and it normally has to be done by your users. You can cheat and use the Mailboxes node in ESM to figure out which mailboxes are the largest and focus on cleaning them first. A better way to perform this sort of maintenance is to use the Mailbox Manager, discussed in Recipe 5.26.
Open the Properties dialog box for the mailbox store and switch to the Limits tab.
Enter 0 into the Keep deleted items ...