NTFS and the Installable File System

NTFS and the Installable File System

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Note  Microsoft® Exchange Server 2003 does not support direct access to the M: drive, and the M: drive is not installed by default. It is strongly recommended that you not build applications that use the M: drive on Exchange Server 2003.

Exchange Server 2003 uses the native Microsoft Windows® 2000 file system as the underlying storage mechanism for the Exchange store. In addition, the SMTP service supports using file system folders as mailboxes and mail drops. Messages placed in the mail drop folders are picked up by the protocol servers and routed to the message recipients.

Server-based Exchange applications can access the native file system using the normal platform programming mechanisms.

Exchange also uses the Windows 2000 installable file system (IFS), to enable file-system style access to the Exchange store. Typically the first storage group is mapped to the M: drive on the server computer. In addition, remote computers can connect to the Exchange store using the same SMB connections and drive-mapping techniques used under Windows File and Printer Sharing. The default share name for the Exchange store is \\ServerName\BackOfficeStorage, where ServerName is the computer where the Exchange store is running.

Administrative utilities, scripts, and applications that run on the Exchange computer, can access the Exchange store using IFS and the M: drive. For example, a script that periodically updates a set of files in a public folder tree could use the standard Windows Script Host (WSH) FileSystemObject.

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Build: June 2007 (2007.618.1)

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