XADM: 2140 and 1002 with Error -1008 Starting Exchange Directory Service (262371)

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5

This article was previously published under Q262371

SYMPTOMS

When you start the Exchange Server directory service, the following error message may be displayed:

Error 2140. Internal Windows NT error.

The following event ID is logged in the Microsoft Windows NT Event Viewer application event log:

Event ID: 1002
Source: MSExchangeDS
Type: Error
Category: Internal Processing
Description:
The Microsoft Exchange Server database, EDB, could not be initialized and returned error -1008. Unrecoverable error. The directory cannot continue.

CAUSE

This issue can occur because many virus protection programs set files to read only to protect the files. The -1008 error corresponds to JET_errDatabaseFileReadOnly.

RESOLUTION

To resolve this issue, if the database is set to read only, remove the Read Only attribute from the database and restart the directory service.

You may need to run the eseutil /r /ds command to make the directory consistent.

MORE INFORMATION

Microsoft recommends that file-level virus protection programs exclude the Exchange Server database and log files. These files should be scanned by an Exchange Server-aware virus protection product.

For additional information about antivirus software and Exchange Server, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

245822 XGEN: Recommendations for Troubleshooting an Exchange Server Computer with Antivirus Installed

Modification Type:	Minor	Last Reviewed:	4/21/2005
Keywords:	kbprb KB262371