Soft Recovery is an automatic process in Exchange Server that replays the transaction log files on a database that is remounted after an unexpected shutdown. The process replays only those log files that have been specified for the storage group containing the inconsistent databases. It makes the databases complete with the recorded transactions. At times, the log files get damaged and unusable and this corruption is detected when Exchange performs soft recovery. In such situations, the databases remain inconsistent and lose the ability to mount. To restore them, you should use your latest available backup or use eseutil repair commands to bring the databases to consistent state. If these measures fail, this compels you to repair the databases using Exchange Recovery solutions.

For instance, suppose you try to mount a mailbox store or public store of Exchange Server. The operation may fail with an error described below:

“Corruption was detected during soft recovery in the log file”

The error further describes that the log file has been damaged and cannot be used. The error prevents the Exchange databases from mounting. The application event log marks the error with event 465.

Cause

The error indicates that the databases are in dirty shutdown state and the transaction log file is corrupted. Generally, it occurs due to corruption in Edb00000E8.log file.

Solution

To resolve the described error, you should apply the steps mentioned underneath:

  • Backup Exchange databases related with corrupted log files in offline mode

  • Run eseutil /mh command to check the databases for consistency

  • If the databases are consistent, you can safely remove all the log files from the folder

  • If the databases are not consistent, you should perform soft recovery using eseutil /r command

  • If running soft recovery doesn’t work, you can restore from backup or perform hard recovery using eseutil /p command

Exchange hard command is called forcible-sate recovery command and can cause data loss. Thus, to repair the databases safely, you should use more reliable alternatives of Exchange Recovery. There are several Exchange Server Recovery products available that can repair a corrupted databases and extract all mailboxes from them.

Stellar Phoenix Mailbox Exchange Recovery is an advanced and safe solution for repairing a corrupted Exchange database. The Exchange Server Recovery tool incorporates powerful scanning algorithms to result repair. It supports Exchange Server 5.5, 2000 and 2003. The software is competent at extracting mailboxes in individual .pst files.