Resetting the server clock would cause all kinds of problems including accessing the domain servers which I assume the Exchange server wasn’t - that is not a recommended configuration. That it turn would mean logins to the Exchange server would fail.
A significant time differential on a LAN causes connection failures. That very problem has come up here with FReepers asking for assistance as to why computers could not connect with each other, the solution simply being to check/update the date/times.
I believe the workstation clock would not come into play at all with MS Exchange.
If the email (notifying of the hard drive “failure”) recipients were internal, which I assume they were, then the situation is vastly simpler because there would be no other mail server involved.
I wouldn’t know how to do it off the top of my head, but there are a number of low-level tools for working with MS Exchange and do believe that the timestamps could be edited and doubt that regardless of whether or not it would work, there would be any other way to accomplish back-dating, including resetting computer clocks.
“I believe the workstation clock would not come into play at all with MS Exchange”
I have shown a friend once that he can change the apparent dates on Outlook Express by changing the computer PC date.
The email arrived with the changed date. However, when you used the “view source” feature in Outlook Express, the real transmission/receipt dates/times from the servers involved were correct.
I have MS Exchange. I’ll try resetting my pc clock and sending and email and see what pops up.
The supposed e-mails included in the document are nothing but printouts, and there’s no metadata associated with them. They could have originated anywhere.