HELP!! database won't rebuild and I can't access email anymore.

[kevinleea]

Version: v.X
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger)
Processor: Intel
Email Client: pop

I had this problem before and updated to the latest version of Microsoft Office v.X

however, today i experienced the same problem. My Entourage will not open and i get the error message "Entourage cannot access your data. To attempt to fix the problem, rebuild your database." when i click to rebuild database, i get the error message, "To rebuild the database, quit all other Microsoft Office programs and try again." but, i don't have any other Microsoft Office programs running. when i try to open Microsoft Word, i get the error message, "An unexpected error occurred while trying to load the Microsoft Framework X library."

How do i solve this to? Thank you sooooooo much for your help!!!

Kevin

 

[Diane Ross]

however, today i experienced the same problem. My Entourage will not open and
i get the error message "Entourage cannot access your data. To attempt to fix
the problem, rebuild your database." when i click to rebuild database, i get
the error message, "To rebuild the database, quit all other Microsoft Office
programs and try again." but, i don't have any other Microsoft Office programs
running. when i try to open Microsoft Word, i get the error message, "An
unexpected error occurred while trying to load the Microsoft Framework X
library."

The Microsoft Database daemon needs to be quit. The best way to quit these
hidden applications is to log out/in with the Shift key down to disable all
running applications.

For help with the framework error see:

<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/error/framework.html>

I find that many users that are still running Office X, have hard drives
that are low on free space. You need a minimum of 10% to run your files. To
rebuild, you need even more free space. (Use the Activity Monitor to view
fee space.) You need at least twice the size of the database plus the 10%.
See this article on rebuilding an Entourage X Identity.

Rebuilding a damaged database that exceeded size limit

<http://blog.entourage.mvps.org/2007/09/rebuilding_a_damaged_database_that_e
xceeded_size_limit.html>

In case the above link does not work:

<http://tinyurl.com/4s6qv3>

 

[kevinleea]

Diane,
Thanks for your help!! I haven't been able to try to do a typical rebuild or an advanced rebuild in Entourage. every time i would try to start it up i would get the same two errors and it would shut off.

however, i have 1 databases in my "Main Identity" in the Office X identities folder. i have an "old database" and a "database". when i rename the "database" and call it "old database2", Entourage immediately opens and creates a new identity and starts without any of my old folders or emails. both the "database" and "old database" are at 2GB.

how can i tell of the databases are damaged or just reached their size limit? also, it appears that i have plenty of space on my harddrive. is there a way to shrink the size of these databases? can i combine them? how often will i have to deal with this?

Thank you so much for all of your help!!

Kevin

 

[Kerry]

Diane,
Thanks for your help!! I haven't been able to try to do a typical rebuildor an advanced rebuild in Entourage. every time i would try to start it upi would get the same two errors and it would shut off.

however, i have 1 databases in my "Main Identity" in the Office X identities folder. i have an "old database" and a "database". when i rename the "database" and call it "old database2", Entourage immediately opens and creates a new identity and starts without any of my old folders or emails. both the "database" and "old database" are at 2GB.

how can i tell of the databases are damaged or just reached their size limit? also, it appears that i have plenty of space on my harddrive. is therea way to shrink the size of these databases? can i combine them? how oftenwill i have to deal with this?

Thank you so much for all of your help!!

Kevin

I don't really know if this is your issue but there is a know problem
by Microsoft around the database rebuild and it not functioning
properly. Before rebuilding run verify and see if the database is not
functioning properly. If its not, run rebuild then run verify to see
if its now performing correctly. Open Entourage. If it won't open, you
are this known problem. At this point, all you can do is go to a
previous backup. In my case, my previous Time Machine backup, under
verify, showed the database was working fine. I replaced the main
identity with the backup and I was up and running again with a loss of
about an hours worth of data (no biggee). Hopefully, you have at least
a backup from some utility that would say be no more than a day old.

Microsoft is aware of the severity of this problem. If a user does not
maintain backups and the repair doesn't work there really isn't a way
of getting into that identity to even export the data as an rge file
to re-import to a new, clean identity (rebuild will work on that but
so what good is that). If you don't have a backup, check your user
identities for 2008 in your home folder and see if a backed up
identity might have been created under say a compress. That identity
will probably work however, run verify but don't run rebuild (it'll
toast). If you do have this, make sure its name is Main Identity or
rename it that in the 2008 folder (compress the old identity so you
have a backup of the non-working one as who knows Microsoft may get
this fixed but don't count on it anytime soon as they're trying to
figure out what's wrong).

Finally, you mentioned your DB is 2 gigs. I really would try not to
have your main identity anywhere near that size. You're asking for
trouble. Entourage is not a true database in the purest sense (it has
SQL relational type capabilities but its monolithic database and its
function/reliability has been criticized). I would export stuff as an
rge file and import it into say a database that you might call
archive. Delete everything in the prime main identity that is of a
certain age old, compact the database and now run with your leaner DB.
You'll find search functions etc will be faster as it doesn't have to
deal with tons of records. Further, you reduce the probability of DB
corruption and there isn't as much for your backup utility to backup -
if its 2 gigs everyday or every hour its going to back up 2 gigs. The
backups will start getting unreasonable and you absolutely have to
have backups of Entourage 08 in its current, very buggy and unreliable
state. You can align your archived data to your main identity by
removing the overlapping data by date. The Archived file will also be
smaller than your main identity as it will be now raw data (no
categories, links etc) and will not leave massive amounts of white
space. Finally, anything in the archived file can be found with a
Spotlight search and if it is in the archived file just go to
Entourage and switch identities to the archive and do you search again
from either Entourage or Spotlight to open the record.

Even if you can get this identity open I would still make sure you
have backups and trim it as the re-build function is not reliable
until Microsoft tells us it is.

 

[Diane Ross]

however, i have 1 databases in my "Main Identity" in the Office X identities
folder. i have an "old database" and a "database". when i rename the
"database" and call it "old database2", Entourage immediately opens and
creates a new identity and starts without any of my old folders or emails.
both the "database" and "old database" are at 2GB.

When you rebuild your database in Entourage X, Entourage saves the old files
and renames them "old". You should see "Old Database Cache" and "Old
Database". If you rebuild again without deleting the backups you will see
"Old Database Cache 1" and "Old Database 1" in addition to the other "old"
files.

When you renamed the file "database" to "old database" did you replace it
with a file named just "database?" If not, that's why Entourage opened in a
new Identity. The current Identity contains no database. If you remove "old"
from the backup, Entourage would try to reopen in the pre-rebuild Identity.

how can i tell of the databases are damaged or just reached their size limit?
also, it appears that i have plenty of space on my harddrive. is there a way
to shrink the size of these databases? can i combine them? how often will i
have to deal with this?

It sounds like the update has not worked it's magic to upgrade the size
allowed for a database. Since they are all 2GB it sounds like you hit the
wall for size. Unless you can rebuild, there is no way to combine or shrink
your databases.

You can contact me off list and we can try something new I just found that
would allow you to send me your Identity. I could then test it here.

dianeross at mvps dot org <-- fix before replying.

Prefix your subject with: newsgroup response

 

[Diane Ross]

Finally, you mentioned your DB is 2 gigs. I really would try not to
have your main identity anywhere near that size.

Databases around 2GB are the norm. Many users have databases over 5GB and
some over 10GB and a few others over 20GB.

Further, you reduce the probability of DB
corruption and there isn't as much for your backup utility to backup -
if its 2 gigs everyday or every hour its going to back up 2 gigs.

It is NOT recommended that you backup Entourage with Time Machine on the
hourly schedule. As a general rule you should shut down all Office programs
(including Office Notifications) before any Entourage backups. If the not
the backup could be corrupt.

Two options to backup:

Alternative method to use Entourage and Time Machine (does a once a day or
whatever time period you select) This quits Entourage and the Microsoft
Database daemon allowing for once a day backup into Time Machine.

<http://blog.entourage.mvps.org/2008/01/alternative_method_to_use_entourage_
and_time_machine.html>

<http://tinyurl.com/2r79ll>

Entourage and Time Machine (creates chronological backup of Identity can be
used by both Tiger and Leopard)

<http://blog.entourage.mvps.org/2008/01/entourage_and_time_machine.html>