XCON: MTA Fails with 9405 Error Queue-Desc-Object (ID1) Not Found

ID: Q182085

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Exchange Server, versions 4.0, 5.0, 5.5

SYMPTOMS

When you try to start the Microsoft Exchange Message Transfer Agent (MTA), the service may fail to start and the following error message appears in the Windows NT Application Log:


   Event ID: 9405
   Source: MSExchangeMTA
   Type: Error
   Category: Field Engineering

   An unexpected error has occurred which may cause the MTA to terminate.
   Error: Queue-Desc-Object (ID 1) not found. [BASE MAIN BASE 1] (16)

Additionally, running MTACHECK against the \mtadata directory will fail with a similar error message:

Error in Queue-Desc-Object (ID 1) initialization
Database contains serious errors and cannot be automatically repaired.

CAUSE

This error occurs when the file DB000001.DAT is missing from the exchsrvr\mtadata directory on the affected Exchange Server computer. Reasons for this file being lost are usually user intervention, file corruption, or hard disk corruption. This results in Windows NT automatically running a CHKDSK during the next startup and the corrupt file being deleted.

WORKAROUND

The MTADATA directory needs to be rebuilt. Consult the following Microsoft Knowledge Base article on rebuilding the MTADATA directory:

Q162384 XCON: How to Troubleshoot MTA Starting Failures

MORE INFORMATION

Because DB000001.DAT is one of the MTA core static data files, it cannot just be copied from the Exchange Server CD-ROM. If DB000001.DAT is copied from the Exchange Server CD-ROM and the MTA is restarted, message data loss may occur.

Additional query words: exception emsmta dat


Keywords          : kbusage XCON 
Version           : WINDOWS:4.0,5.0,5.5
Platform          : winnt 
Issue type        : kbprb

Last Reviewed: April 1, 1999