Message tracking logs are being written to a non-NTFS partition

Topic Last Modified: 2007-01-17

The Microsoft® Exchange Server Analyzer Tool queries the Win32_Directory Microsoft Windows® Management Instrumentation (WMI) class to determine the value of the FSName key for the Exchange message tracking logs file path. If the Exchange Server Analyzer determines that the value for the FSName key does not equal NTFS, an error is displayed.

Microsoft does not support the storage of Exchange data files on non-NTFS volumes. Exchange data files include all of the following files:

.edb files
.stm files
.log files
.dat files
.eml files
.chk files

If you encounter this error, you must move the message tracking logs to a folder on an NTFS drive. Alternatively, if the drive on which the message tracking logs are stored is formatted as a FAT drive, you can use the convert.exe command-line tool to convert the drive to NTFS.

To move the message tracking logs in Exchange Server 2003

Open Exchange System Manager.
Expand Administrative Groups, expand your administrative group, expand Servers, right-click your server, and then click Properties.
On the General tab, click Change.
Type the new path of the message tracking logs, and then click OK.
Click OK.

Note:
By default, the modification of the tracking log file location takes effect at midnight coordinated universal time (UTC). After this change takes effect, the Exchange message tracking component creates new log files in the new location that you specified. However, previous log files are not moved to the new location. Because of this, wait until the new log file location change has taken effect, and then manually move the log files from the old location to the new log file location. If the Microsoft Exchange System Attendant service is restarted, the log file path is immediately changed to the new location. In this scenario, Exchange message tracking creates a new log file in the new location when a user sends a message. In this scenario, you might have two log files that have the same name: one log file in the original location and one log file in the new location that you specified. If this behavior occurs, rename the log file that is stored in the original log file location before you move it to the new log file location. Use the same naming convention that is used by Exchange message tracking (yyyymmdd). However, in this case, use a date that is earlier than any one of the existing log files so that this renamed log file does not interfere with a future log file.

Note:

By default, the modification of the tracking log file location takes effect at midnight coordinated universal time (UTC). After this change takes effect, the Exchange message tracking component creates new log files in the new location that you specified. However, previous log files are not moved to the new location. Because of this, wait until the new log file location change has taken effect, and then manually move the log files from the old location to the new log file location. If the Microsoft Exchange System Attendant service is restarted, the log file path is immediately changed to the new location. In this scenario, Exchange message tracking creates a new log file in the new location when a user sends a message. In this scenario, you might have two log files that have the same name: one log file in the original location and one log file in the new location that you specified. If this behavior occurs, rename the log file that is stored in the original log file location before you move it to the new log file location. Use the same naming convention that is used by Exchange message tracking (yyyymmdd). However, in this case, use a date that is earlier than any one of the existing log files so that this renamed log file does not interfere with a future log file.

For more information about moving the message tracking log files on a computer running Exchange 2000 Server, see the Microsoft Knowledge Base article 317700, "How to change the location of the message tracking logs in Exchange 2000 Server" (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=3052&kbid=317700).

As an alternative to the preceding procedure, if the drive on which the files are stored is formatted as a FAT drive, you can use the convert.exe command-line tool to convert the drive to NTFS. For more information about using the convert.exe command-line tool to convert a FAT partition into an NTFS partition, see the Microsoft Knowledge Base article 214579, "How to Use Convert.exe to Convert a Partition to the NTFS File System" (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=3052&kbid=214579).