The M drive is merely a manifestation[1] of mail messages. You can read quite a bit more on Windows Installable File System drivers on MSDN. A file system is really just a collection of APIs that allow you to navigate a set of data in a logical fashion - containers (folders) and items (files). It shouldn't be too hard to see how one might view mail data as containers (folders) and items (messages). [3]
So, the ExIFS driver, which is installed with Exchange 2000 is the "Exchange Installable File System driver." It allows a certain set of well known APIs [2]to view the containers and items. It just so happens that if you give a file system supporting those APIs a drive letter, you can see it through Explorer or a CMD window, or any of the other standard Windows file dialog boxes...because they use the file system APIs to access data. It's no different than a network drive or a RAM drive or a flash memory card or a zip drive or ... It is merely a manifestation of data in the form of folders and files. The thing to remember is that since it is just a view of the mail messages presented by the file system APIs, it's not necessarily the most feature rich way to manipulate that data. The manipulation via the ExIFS (M: drive) is limited by the set of file system APIs [2]. On the other hand, the ability to manipulate the data through a mail client like Outlook has a very rich set of APIs for dealing with mail data - much beyond the simple functions for finding and displaying files. The messaging APIs that are native to the Exchange store allow things like getrecipients, addattachment, resolvenames, etc. So, the M: drive can be seen as an (abbreviated) acronym for "Marginally Manipulatable Manifestation of Mail Messages." regards [4] Andy [1] to make evident or certain by showing or displaying [2] readfile, writefile, movefile, deletefile, renamefile, openfile, closefile, findfile, etc. [3] it's slightly more complex than this because a mail message is actually a container as well. it contains a header and a body and perhaps one or more attachments, which themselves can be messages (containers). it also can contain multiple bodies (e.g mime multipart alternative content) that display based on the best capabilities of the client. [4] hope this didn't make it worse ======================================================= Andy Webb [EMAIL PROTECTED] www.swinc.com Simpler-Webb, Inc. Austin, TX 512-322-0071 -- Way to go USPS Cycling Team and Lance Armstrong!! -- ======================================================= -----Original Message----- From: John Q [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Tuesday, November 20, 2001 9:36 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: E2K M Drive (moving it) Thank you both for the Dummies guide to understanding the M drive in Exchange 2K. Logically it makes no sense, but I just have to take you word for it. Thnaks for the "extra" help. -John Q ----- Original Message ----- From: "Benjamin Winzenz" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Exchange Discussions" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Tuesday, November 20, 2001 6:31 AM Subject: RE: E2K M Drive (moving it) > Try looking at it this way. From now on, pretend that the M drive > does not > exist. That's right. Don't even look at it. Why? Because it > doesn't contain anything that you need to look at right now. If you > want to know where your databases are, you find out where they are in > Exchange System Manager. It isn't going to lie to you and tell you > they are on E: when they > are actually on D: now is it? I don't think so. Heck, you can even > open up > explorer and browse your Physical drives (again, pretending M isn't > there) and look at where the databases are located if you feel that is > necessary. As others have said, the M drive is a actual representation > of the database. > It contains a folder for each user because, well, each user has a > mailbox. If you were to drill down into your mailbox, you would see > and Inbox, Sent Items, etc. underneath that, and they would have mail > items in them. But remember, the M drive doesn't exist. It will make > things easier for you. > > Ben Winzenz, MCSE > Network/Systems Administrator > Peregrine Systems, Inc. > > -----Original Message----- > From: John Q [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] > Sent: Monday, November 19, 2001 6:25 PM > To: Exchange Discussions > Subject: Re: E2K M Drive (moving it) > > Ohhh I think this is good news . . . I'm not worried about how much > space is > represented by the M: drive I am worried that the data that is > represented by the M: drive, which is a folder named by the domain of > the Exchange server and then inside that each user has a folder, will > grow bigger than what is allocated on D: The D: drive has limited > space. E: is where the STM > and EDB files are located. > What type of data/ info is stored in the M:\domainname.com\username > directories and why can I not access it using a file manager, i.e. explorer? > > Thanks again, Tom! > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Tom Meunier" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: "Exchange Discussions" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Sent: Monday, November 19, 2001 4:15 PM > Subject: RE: E2K M Drive (moving it) > > > No it doesn't. The M: drive represents whatever drive the STM and EDB > files are stored on. Don't worry about what M: is reporting as its > fullness or emptiness. It has many service packs to go before it can > comprehend that kind of zen. If you're worried about how much room > your > D: drive has open, go look at your D: drive. > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: John Q [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] > > Posted At: Monday, November 19, 2001 04:22 PM > > Posted To: MSExchange Mailing List > > Conversation: E2K M Drive (moving it) > > Subject: Re: E2K M Drive (moving it) > > > > > > O.K. I understand that the "M: drive" is a virtual directory, but > > when I look at the available space on the M: drive it matches the > > space of another > > drive, in this example M: = D: how do I change that, I have moved the > > Exchange DB and streaming DB, but the M: drive still > > represents the D: drive > > and not the E: drive where I moved the DB to. > > > > Thanks for the help. > > > > ----- Original Message ----- > > From: "Tom Meunier" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > To: "Exchange Discussions" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > Sent: Monday, November 19, 2001 1:30 PM > > Subject: RE: E2K M Drive (moving it) > > > > > > You don't move the M: drive. You move the databases. The > > "M: drive" is > > a virtual directory. Your E2k databases can be spread across > > multiple drives, and M: is still an amalgamation of them. > > > > To move the actual data, you right-click on the mailbox store you > > want to move, in Exchange System Manager, and choose its properties. > > Click the "database" tag and tell it where you want the Exchange DB > > and streaming DB moved. It'll dismount, move, and remount. You can > > also move the logs by doing the same on the storage group object. > > > > > -----Original Message----- > > > From: John Q [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] > > > Posted At: Monday, November 19, 2001 02:14 PM > > > Posted To: MSExchange Mailing List > > > Conversation: E2K M Drive (moving it) > > > Subject: Re: E2K M Drive (moving it) > > > > > > > > > How do you move the data that is located in the M: drive to a > > > nother drive. I want to move the mailbox data to aonther SCSI > > > drive, I know how to move > > > the database what do you use to move the mailboxes in Xchange 2K ? > > > > > > ----- Original Message ----- > > > From: "WebMeister" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > > To: "Exchange Discussions" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > > Sent: Tuesday, November 06, 2001 8:18 PM > > > Subject: E2K M Drive > > > > > > > > > Has anyone actually shared this and given their users > > access to this? > > > Have you seen any real benefits? I have not done so > > because it looks > > > like it will be more of a trouble than a benefit. > > _________________________________________________________________ > List posting FAQ: http://www.swinc.com/resource/exch_faq.htm > Archives: http://www.swynk.com/sitesearch/search.asp > To unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Exchange List admin: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > _________________________________________________________________ > List posting FAQ: http://www.swinc.com/resource/exch_faq.htm > Archives: http://www.swynk.com/sitesearch/search.asp > To unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Exchange List admin: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > _________________________________________________________________ > List posting FAQ: http://www.swinc.com/resource/exch_faq.htm > Archives: http://www.swynk.com/sitesearch/search.asp > To unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Exchange List admin: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > _________________________________________________________________ List posting FAQ: http://www.swinc.com/resource/exch_faq.htm Archives: http://www.swynk.com/sitesearch/search.asp To unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Exchange List admin: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
