Help Rebuilding / Repairing Entourage X?

[rlbnyc]

Version: v.X
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: Intel
Email Client: pop

Hello to all,

As of yesterday morning I have had a problem with my mail program -- Entourage X (Mac). When I opened it I got the message that the database needed to be rebuilt. I found how to do this and opened Entourage while holding down the 'Option' key. I chose the basic rebuild from the dialog box, and the progress bar never started moving and the entire program froze, requiring a Force Quit from the Apple menu. I repeated this process after restarts with the same results.

Since my main object is to retrieve my e-mail correspondence rather than any allegiance to Entourage X, I tried importing my Entourage data into Apple Mail. This did not work. Likewise, I installed Office 2008 (Mac) and it would not import my mail data from X.

Then I looked up, via Google, this location seemed to deal with the problem in later versions of Entourage (especially comments by Ed Kimball + Diane Ross). I'm not sure how to proceed in Entourage X, however. Can you provide a step-by-step process for rebuilding the database? And, I hope, for being able to repair it so I can import the information into another more current e-mail program.

My primary hard drive is completely backed up to another hard drive, so I'm free to try things.

I'm a rank amateur in these matters.

My computer is an Intel iMac running OS 10.5.7. The Entourage database is 3.22 GB; there is 132 GB free space on my primary (startup) hard drive, so there should be plenty of 'rebuilding' room.

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.

Rachel in Brooklyn

 

[Diane Ross]

My computer is an Intel iMac running OS 10.5.7. The Entourage database is 3.22
GB; there is 132 GB free space on my primary (startup) hard drive, so there
should be plenty of 'rebuilding' room.

I recover Entourage X Identities and it's not an easy process. I can point
you to some resources that will help you do this.

First read this article.

Rebuilding a damaged database that exceeded size limit

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

If you have a copy of the database BEFORE the rebuild, that gives a base to
work from to recover. Entourage makes a copy but the copy during the rebuild
is not always good. Always work off the copy!

Entourage 2008 does not import Entourage X data. You need to manually move
your data out of Entourage X and import that data into Entourage 2008.

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>

Good luck!