Entourage Database Utility Eating All Mail in Inbox

[Gerald Wilson]

I woke up this morning to find the Database utility window open and it
telling me i needed to repair my database.

I let it. when it was finally finished it was missing all mail in
inbox from 1/1/2010 to date (or more). The top of the inbox just said
"Older".

What was weird is the same thing happened when i went back to the
version it backed up!!

Luckily, I have a daily backup of the whole identity and I restored
that. It didn't tell me i had to repair, but I did anyway, with
exactly the same results!

So I restored last night's backup again.

What's going on? Should I just live with the backup in a possibly
unstable condition? The database is 8.5 gigs.

 

[Diane Ross]

What's going on? Should I just live with the backup in a possibly
unstable condition? The database is 8.5 gigs.

This indicates serious corruption. Does the Identity open at all or does it
just tell you to rebuild?

How much free space is on your hard drive?

--
Diane Ross, Microsoft Mac MVP
Entourage Help Page <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/>
Entourage Help Blog <http://blog.entourage.mvps.org/>
YouTalk <http://tinyurl.com/bzcrjy> <-- Entourage mailing list
Twitter: follow <http://twitter.com/entouragehelp>

 

[Gerald Wilson]

This indicates serious corruption. Does the Identity open at all or does it
just tell you to rebuild?

How much free space is on your hard drive?

Yeah the identity opens just fine without any errors. I just got one
message this morning saying it should be rebuilt, and like I said, I
did. Then the restore process also deleted the same period of email
from the backup the utility made made. After restoring from last
night's backup (using Tri-Backup), it gave me no more messages and
appears to work. As I also said, I tried to repair that one with the
same result. So then I restored it again, and again it seems to work.
But it makes me nervous.

I have plenty of space on my hard drive, more than 200 GB free.

 

[Diane Ross]

Yeah the identity opens just fine without any errors.

First try exporting as Entourage archive (.rge) file and only select
messages. I suspect you will get an error at the end saying all messages
did not export.

Next, download and run this script that will export all folders as MBOX
files. The script will fail on a folder with corruption. You will need
to subdivide that folder and drag to the desktop. You can watch the
folders being created in a Finder window to see where it fails. Also
watch in Activity Monitor the Microsoft Database daemon. You don't have
a progress window for the script. When the daemon is at 0.0 CPU the
script has quit.

One option if the folder that has the corruption is not a default folder
is to rename it with xx in front of the name to move it to the bottom.
Then run the script to see if it's the only folder. If it's a default
folder the you can only subdivide into smaller subfolders and test. The
only way to know for sure is to note the number of messages and then
drag into a new Identity and verify the correct number exported.

Folders that are really large (over 2GB) tend to fail.

Once you get all the mail out, you can import into a new Identity. Use
the export as .rge for all the other items.

Good luck!

 

[Diane Ross]

Next, download and run this script

Ooops! forgot the link.

Export folders as MBOX files (includes subfolders)
<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/downloads/scripts/jolly/Make_MBOX.zip>

 

[Diane Ross]

thanks... I'll try that eventually. It will take all day long because I
have scores of folders and rules that go with them. Wish there were an
easier way but ok.

You can use the same Rules file. You have to reset folder destinations,
but you don't have to create rules from scratch.

 

[Diane_Ross_MVP]

What's going on? Should I just live with the backup in a possibly
unstable condition? The database is 8.5 gigs.

Your database is really hosed. Once you have a database that will open be
sure you have a backup. It's possible that as you manually move your data
out, Entourage will refuse to open and you'll have to resort to your backup.

How to manually move your data. (when import fails and/or you need to move
to a new Identity same version or revert to an older version)

<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/install/manual_install.html>

I do this for clients and I can tell you it's a big job. All the directions
are in the link, but don't expect it to be a quick or easy process. Good
luck!

--
Diane Ross, Microsoft Mac MVP
Entourage Help Page <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/>
Entourage Help Blog <http://blog.entourage.mvps.org/>
YouTalk <http://tinyurl.com/bzcrjy> <-- Entourage mailing list
Twitter: follow <http://twitter.com/entouragehelp>