SMTP BadMail data is being written to a non-NTFS partition

[This topic is intended to address a specific issue called out by the Exchange Server Analyzer Tool. You should apply it only to systems that have had the Exchange Server Analyzer Tool run against them and are experiencing that specific issue. The Exchange Server Analyzer Tool, available as a free download, remotely collects configuration data from each server in the topology and automatically analyzes the data. The resulting report details important configuration issues, potential problems, and nondefault product settings. By following these recommendations, you can achieve better performance, scalability, reliability, and uptime. For more information about the tool or to download the latest versions, see "Microsoft Exchange Analyzers" at https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=34707.]  

Topic Last Modified: 2005-11-18

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 Exchange SMTP BadMail directory. If the Exchange Server Analyzer determines that the value for the FSName key does not equal NTFS, a warning is displayed.

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

  • .edb files

  • .stm files

  • .log files

  • .dat files

  • .eml files

If you see this warning, you must move the SMTP BadMail directory to a folder on an NTFS file system drive. Alternatively, if the drive on which the BadMail directory is 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 SMTP BadMail directory to another folder

  1. Start Exchange System Manager.

  2. Click Administrative Groups, expand your administrative group, expand Servers, expand your server, expand Protocols, and then expand SMTP.

  3. Right-click your SMTP virtual server, and then click Stop.

  4. Right-click your SMTP virtual server, and then click Properties.

  5. On the Messages tab, next to the BadMail directory box, click Browse, and then type the path of the new location of the BadMail folder.

  6. Click OK.

  7. Right-click your SMTP virtual server, and then click Start.

For more information about moving the Mailroot folder, see the Microsoft Knowledge Base article 822933, "How to change the Exchange 2003 SMTP Mailroot folder location" (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=3052&kbid=822933).

As an alternative to the 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 information about using the convert.exe command-line tool to convert a FAT partition to an NTFS partition, see the Microsoft Knowledge Base article 214579, "How to Use Convert.exe to Convert a Partition to the NTFS File System" (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=3052&kbid=214579).