Convert Legacy Exchange EDB Mailboxes to PST Files, Retaining Legal Email Integrity
Migration of emails from legacy Microsoft Exchange server is a task that demands more than just the export of mailboxes, especially when these emails can be used for legal purposes. In this case study, we will see how Datarecovee helped Marlow & Vance Legal Tech to migrate Exchange Database (EDB) files to PST files, keeping the integrity of data, folders, and metadata.
Client Details
| The Client: | Marlow & Vance Legal Tech |
| Location: | Boston, Massachusetts |
| Industry: | Legal Technology (E-Discovery Solutions) |
Project Overview
| Time of Conversion | 7 Hours |
|---|---|
| Complete Processed data | 86 GB |
| Rate of Success | 100% mailbox accessible |
| Mailboxes Shifted | 32 |
| The Result | Client Audit Deadline Met |
The Issues
Marlow & Vance Legal Tech offers e-discovery and litigation services to small and medium-sized law firms. The company’s service is aimed at collecting, analyzing, and reviewing the data stored in electronic form.
- In order to perform one of its projects related to client infrastructure modernization, the company had to migrate the archive of historical emails from the legacy Microsoft Exchange server that used the Exchange Database (EDB) file format. The migration became urgent due to the audit scheduled by the client, which required fast access to all archives.
- They were about to reach its end-of-life stage, and it was quite risky and expensive to continue working with this server. However, it was necessary to make sure that no damage was done to the email data because everything – each mailbox, message, attachment, date stamp, folder structure, etc. had to be preserved to meet the requirements of the future discovery process.
- Facing the approaching deadline of the audit, Marlow & Vance Legal Tech had to find a reliable solution that would convert EDB files into PST format.
Why Precision Matters?
While usual mailbox conversions do not require additional precautions, in this case, there is a possibility that the converted documents might have been used as evidence in the future.
It was essential to handle the following information in a proper way to avoid any problems with using the email archive in court, like email headers, senders’ and recipients’ addresses, timestamps, attachments, folder structure, marking messages as read/unread, and metadata used in e-discovery.
Any discrepancies in converted emails would either complicate their review or make them unreliable as evidence.It was necessary to select emails by category
- Date
- Sender
- Recipient
- Subject line
- Mailbox
- Folder
Thus, the amount of irrelevant data was minimized, and the review process was accelerated.
The Outcome
- It took around seven hours for Datarecovee to perform the migration of the EDB to the PST file format. The process involved the successful migration of 86 GB of Exchange mailbox data.
- The PST files were ready to use and provided all necessary structure, attachment data, timestamps, and email metadata for e-discovery purposes.
- Most importantly, Marlow & Vance Legal Tech managed to comply with the audit deadline set by its client and save the integrity of its email evidence.
- After the project, Marlow & Vance Legal Tech developed an email archiving strategy and regular email exports with clear retention policies in order to make future audits easier.
Client Takeaway
“Accuracy was of the highest importance because we had active legal matters depending on the accuracy of email records. Datarecovee provided us with a perfect EDB-to-PST conversion and saved the structure and metadata we needed for e-discovery. The ability to filter the email boxes and finish the migration on time made a significant change in our team.”