In Exchange 2003 it is impossible to delete a public folder store if it contains replicas. However, this can cause a problem - even if your public store has just been created and is completely empty, you can sometimes receive this error message:

You cannot delete this public folder store because it contains folder replicas. To avoid data loss, right click the public folder store and use Move All Replicas to move the replicas to a different server. It may take several hours until the content is replicated to the new server and the local replicas are removed.

Of course using the 'move all replicas' option does nothing to relieve you from this message, if your public store is empty.

To cleanly remove the store (i.e. without using adsiedit) you first need to remove 2 system generated public folders inside the store. If you expand your public folder store and click on Public Folder Instances, you will see the folders you need to remove in there - globalevents and OWAScratchPad, but, you can't remove them from this part of the interface. You will need to expand the Folder tree at the bottom of your Administrative Group and View System Folders. Right-click on the top level of the tree and "Connect to..." the server with the public store you want to delete. Find and examine the globalevents folder.

Now, you need to be extremely careful that you have the correct system folders here, because each public store contains system folders with these names. To be sure you have the right one, check the path and it should be something like:

/NON_IPM_SUBTREE/StoreEvents{BHH7CC57-934F-4CD9-ACC5-A8BC080A1423}/globalevents/

Go back to your 'public folder instances' view on the public store from earlier and check the folder properties. If the path matches this name EXACTLY, it is the right system folder and therefore OK to delete. Follow the same procedure for the OWAScratchPad folder and you should see the remaining system folders vanish, and then you can remove the store. Voila!

Technorati Tags: , ,