Deleting a mailbox and recovering deleted Mailbox

[kmohaan]

In Exchange, if you delete a mailbox, it is disconnected for a default
period of 30 days (the mailbox retention period), and you can
reconnect it at any point during that time.

Deleting a mailbox does not mean that it is permanently deleted (or
purged) from the information store database right away, only that it
is flagged for deletion.

At the end of the mailbox retention period, the mailbox is permanently
deleted from the database. You can also permanently delete the mailbox
by choosing to purge it at any time.

This also means that if you mistakenly delete a mail-enabled user
account, you can recreate that user object, and then reconnect that
mailbox during the mailbox retention period.
Configure the deleted mailbox retention period at the mailbox store
object level.

To Delete a Mailbox in Exchange
1. Right-click the user in Active Directory Users and Computers.
2. Click Exchange Tasks.
3. Click Next on the Welcome page of the Exchange Task Wizard.
4. Click Delete Mailbox.
5. Click Next, click Next, and then click Finish.
The mailbox is now flagged for deletion and will be permanently
deleted at the end of the mailbox retention period unless you recover
it.

To Reconnect (or Recover) a Deleted Mailbox
1. In Exchange System Manager, locate the mailbox store that contains
the disconnected mailbox.
2. Click the Mailboxes object under the mailbox store.
3. If the mailbox is not already marked as disconnected (the mailbox
icon appears with a red X), right-click the Mailboxes object, and then
click Cleanup Agent.
4. Right-click the disconnected mailbox, click Reconnect, and then
select the appropriate user from the dialog box that appears.
5. Click OK.
Note Only one user may be connected to a mailbox because all globally
unique identifiers (GUIDs) are required to be unique across an entire
forest
.
To Reconnect a Deleted Mailbox to a New User Object
1. In Active Directory Users and Computers, create a new user object.
When you create the new user object, click to clear the Create an
Exchange Mailbox check box.
You will connect this user account to an already existing mailbox.
2. Follow steps 1 through 4 in the preceding "To Reconnect (or
Recover) a Deleted Mailbox" section.

To Configure the Mailbox Retention Period
1. Right-click the mailbox store, and then click Properties.
2. On the Limits tab, change the Keep deleted mailboxes for (days)
default setting of 30 to the number of days you want.
3. Click OK.