BCM - The information store could not be opened

[Dale Networkguy]

OK I'll try again - there are two other unresolved threads by other authors
stretching back several months on this exact same issue. I first had a
problem reading (i.e. opening) the Business Contacts so I restored an earlier
backup database. Now I get a message during Outlook startup stating in the
title bar "Business Contact Manager" and the text portion of the warning box
"The information store could not be opened." Further troubleshooting has
involved a reinstallation of the BCM component via Add/Remove by using my
SBA2006 media. It isn't working and any help would be welcomed. ...and yes
the MSSMALLBIZ SQL instance is running.

 

[Dale Networkguy]

Today in an effort to resolve this I completely uninstalled the BCM component
of Office 2003 via Add/Remove. After that I downloaded the latest BCM update
for Office and installed it. I then installed BCM SP3. Folowing all that
work I started Outlook to see what the end result would be. The BCM welcome
wizard started and I chose to use BCM. As the second screen appeared, the
one in which you configure the database, the same message appeared: "The
information store could not be opened".

So it would seem that the database isn't at fault (as none had been chosen
at that point). Instead I have to try and discern what this message is
telling me. Outlook is running and all my POP accounts and an IMAP account
are working.

Any ideas?

 

[Luther]

Does the MSSMALLBIZ SQL instance have a database that matches the bcm
database name in your mail profile?

 

[Dale Networkguy]

The database name follows std. convention - it is actually stored within the
local user profile's hidden folder, local settings->application data tree
structure (.mdf file). The good thing is I followed the recommendation for
backing up the database using the BCM tool. This tool actually saves the
database in a file with the extension *.msbcm. With that file I can take
this to a completely different machine and do the recovery to verify whether
this is a machine or application specific issue.

What I've done with troubleshooting today was to used that .msbcm file to
restore to another machine with Office 2003 Pro & BCM. This worked fine and
all was functioning perfectly. So that indicates there is something unique
to the problematic machine that isn't directly related to the database. I
may uninstall things again but this time manually clean up the expected
residual parts of SQL. Someone has also suggeted renaming some specific
Outlook cache files so I'm going to give that a chance tomorrow. As it is
now 2am, I'm done for the time being and I'll pick up after a night's rest.

Thanks