Diane,
Thank you again for your very expert response.
I do indeed back up my hard disk regularly. In fact I had done a backup just a
few days before encountering my identity file problem. This led to the result
that my backed up identity file is also corrupted.
Often corruption lurks and only rears it's ugly head until it's severe. This
is the reason to keep snapshots of previous Identities.
Fact 1) You can open a corrupt database, but it might not rebuild.
Fact 2) If you can open an Identity, then you can manually move your data
out bypassing the rebuild.
Likewise, I had plenty of room on my laptop hard disk. My identity file is
4.78 GB and I had 18 GB available.
18 GB is not a lot. You need a minimum of 10% just to operate. To rebuild
you need much more. Did you read the article on rebuilding an Entourage X
Identity? We're talking around 450GB free.
I have come to the conclusion that there is an inherent size limit to the
identity file created when Entourage is installed. I do not know what that
limit is, but it is less than 4.78 GB. When you exceed that inherent limit the
Entourage databank file begins to degenerate.
There are many variable that can cause corruption. Size of hd and free
space, amount of RAM installed, attachments stored in the database,
fragmentation of hd....
Now, when I have attempted to upgrade from Office 2004 to Office 2008 and at
the same time from Tiger to Leopard I have encountered and been defeated by
the corrupted state of my identity file. I no longer have access to my
Entourage 2004 main identity databank.
It's very obvious that your data is important. I suggest you buy an external
drive and use software to clone your current setup to the drive. Then wipe
your current drive and install Leopard and all your software from scratch.
Now you know you have a good install that's not corrupted with past baggage.
You can move over the files in your Documents folder, but try to not bring
over your preferences. Most likely you'll just bring over baggage. It's been
a while since you did a fresh start so take the time now to create a good
environment on your computer. After all your data is important and think of
the time wasted on trying to fix your current problem.
If you are going to install Office 2004 on the new drive you must do it
before you install Office 2008. However, I would just use the copy to
rebuild and not install on the new install.
Once you get your drive back in working order you can then delete most of
the files on the external drive. You should leave the OS and Office 2004
only. This should leave you enough room to try the rebuild. After this you
can use the drive for backup.
The identity file size limit, which I think I have discovered, is a serious
flaw in Entourage.
The Entourage 2004 & 2008 database has no size limit, just a limit to the
number of items in the Entourage database: 2 million database items.
Size Limits of Database said:
If I am right and there is an inherent size limit to the main identity file,
then that fact needs to be publicized.
Entourage X did have a size limit.
--
Diane
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