running exmerge from another server

Well - it happened.  Exchange farmed and our backups proved 

inadequate.  On the good news front we're a small shop and I 

have managed to recover most of the mail from local OSTs and 

PSTs only at the cost of my weekend. But of course there are 

gaps.


And yes the boss does see my point now about giving me a box 

to test our backup restores.  Our main servers are loaded up 

with our own and other 3rd party stuff.


After much pain I've managed to copy the entire exchsrvr dir 

onto another server.  My question is I try to run exmerge and 

it wants to connect to the exchange server which reboots 

every time I try to start the exchange services.  Any way to 

run exmerge on another server?


Would re-installing exchange over the top of itself help?  

The OS seems generally OK but if there some way to install 

win2k again and exchange I'd give it a go.

I've taken an image of the ailing server so can get as 

experimental as I like.


Any reg hacks to get the database to read on another exchange 

server install?


The AD seems Ok.  Is it going to help me to run up exchange 

on another dc in this forest?


Yes I know about Exchange Server Recovery but don't have the 

budget. I've done much RTFM but am out of my depth on this 

one.


And if we r really screwed any tips/links about using win2k 

backup on exchange.  The server won't have the tape drive in 

it.

Much TIA

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