We have an existing installation of GFI MailArchiver 5 with several databases of archives (perhaps 100-150GB). The goal is to export each user's archived e-mail and then import it into Exchange 2010 SP1 Personal Archives. GFI has a tool to do this, but it's very rudimentary and has severe, frankly unworkable, limitations. It only allows me to query based on the e-mail headers. Due to the fact that we have multiple aliases that may show in multiple headers (To:, Cc:), not to mention the fact that this won't cover a user's membership in a distribution group at a given point in time, this tool will not suffice.
Another option is for me extract the e-mails from the GFI databases without using the tool, but this would require me to write my own tool to reconstruct them and I really would rather not go down that path.
I feel very stuck on this issue. Has anyone here done a similar migration? How can this best be handled?
That will not be an easy task especially with such old version. I have seen a similar scenario in the past and the quickest path was to upgrade to the latest version of GFI MailArchiver and then use the export to PST tool that was very improved and works adequately. You could take a demo license for 30 days from the re-seller till you finish your project so it will not cost something.