Recovering Hard-deleted items a.k.a Exchange Dumpster

One of the basic features that comes in handy for customers that come with the request of recovering deleted mails from backup is to use Dumpster mail recovery feature in Exchange server to check if mails are there in the server.

There are two ways in which this recovery operation can accomplished:

1. Registry editor option: - This option is for remote user support guys only not for users!!!

A. Go to Start --> Run and type “regedit”.
B. In the Registry editor click on the + sign next to “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE”.
C. Click on + sign next to “SOFTWARE”.
D. Click on + sign next to “Microsoft”.
E. Click on + sign next to “Exchange”.
F. Click on + sign next to “Client”.
G. Click on + sign next to “Options”.
H. Right-click the options folders and select NewàDWORD value
J. Name it as “DumpsterAlwaysOn” (Without quotes and no space inbetween).
K. Double click the key and set the value as 1
L. Exit the registry Key and re-open the Outlook.
M. Select the folder where the items were hard deleted (i.e, shift+delete).
N. Go to ToolsàRecover Deleted items and select the items you want to recover and press the arrow button at the top of the window.

2. Now another easy way is to copy the below content and ask the user to save it as .reg file (say dumpster.reg) in the desktop. Double click the file and say OK for the pop-up window.

The content of the file is below:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Exchange\Client\Options]
"DumpsterAlwaysOn"=dword:00000001

3. The third way is using Add-in manager:

A. Go to Tools -->Options.
B. Select the “other” tab.
C. Click on the “Advanced features” button.
E. Click the “Add-in Manager” button.
F. In the opened popup window Click on the “Install” button.
G. Select the DUMPSTER.ECF and click OK, also make sure that the "Deleted items recovery" is selected.
H. Exit all the windows by clicking OK.
I. Now access the Folder where you Hard deleted (shift+delete) the mails.
J. Go to Tools --> Recover deleted items.
K. In the open window select the item you want to recover and click the arrow button at the top of the window.