Of course this is the way to backup the whole store. And this is not the best backup strategy. I use Veritas Backupexec for these needs. -----Original Message----- From: Simon Bound [mailto:simon.bound@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] Sent: Thursday, December 18, 2003 12:10 PM To: [ExchangeList] Subject: [exchangelist] RE: [exchangelist] http://www.MSExchange.org/ I'm interested to know whether you have tested a restore of either mailboxes or complete Exchange Post Office from just backing up c:\program files ....mdbdata folder(S) ? It begs the question of why backup vendors sell backup agents for Exchange servers............... Simon