Rebuild leads to empty database

[Alain]

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: Intel
Email Client: Exchange

Help!!
The rebuild process for my database ("rebuild successfull") leads to an empty database (38.6 Mo instead of 2.3 Go). Any hints
Thank you in advance!
Alain

 

[Diane Ross]

Help!!
The rebuild process for my database ("rebuild successfull") leads to an empty
database (38.6 Mo instead of 2.3 Go). Any hints

For Exchange accounts, it's best to just create a new Identity and let
Entourage sync back up to the mail on the server.

If you select the Identity [Backed up xxxxxx] under "Switch Identity" do you
see your old emails?

 

[Alain]

Thanks Diane for the quick answer.
If i select the old identity after "Switching", it triggers the database utility with a message saying that it is corrupted.
I would rather try to rebuild first before eventually syncing back the Exchange data, precisely because up to now Entourage has additional features (Categories or projects) that unfortunately do not transfer to Exchange.

Alain

 

[Diane Ross]

I would rather try to rebuild first before eventually syncing back the
Exchange data, precisely because up to now Entourage has additional features
(Categories or projects) that unfortunately do not transfer to Exchange.

Make a duplicate in the Finder first as additional backup. A rebuild does
make a duplicate, but sometimes in the process the original and backup get
merged resulting in total disaster. It's rare but it happens.

Check to see how much free space you have on your drive. You need lots of
room for a successful rebuild.

Rebuilding a damaged database that exceeded size limit (this applies to any
rebuild)

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

Don't forget you need a minimum of 10% free just for virtual memory. Now add
extra for the rebuild.

 

[Alain]

I have now more than 35 GB of free space (the database itself is 2.4 GB), but the result after rebuild is still the same....
I might have to connect to Exchange if nothing else works, but this is a waste considering how much I had been using Entourage's specific devices.
Any other idea before I proceed?
Alain

 

[Alain]

Hello again
I have tried the following:
-repair authorizations
-clean reinstall of MS Office and its updates

No effect :-(

I guess I have to say goodbye to my downloaded messages, categories, projects...and to get what I can get by download from the Exchange server.
Unless you have a last suggestion?

Alain

 

[Diane Ross]

I guess I have to say goodbye to my downloaded messages, categories,
projects...and to get what I can get by download from the Exchange server.
Unless you have a last suggestion?

I do recovery for clients and could try on my 500GB free drive. If you are
interested you can contact me off list. Otherwise it appears you have done
all you can to recover.

BTW, reinstalls of Office rarely fixes issues like this.

 

[Kerry]

Hello again
I have tried the following:
-repair authorizations
-clean reinstall of MS Office and its updates

No effect :-(

I guess I have to say goodbye to my downloaded messages, categories, projects...and to get what I can get by download from the Exchange server.
Unless you have a last suggestion?

Alain

I've had stuff similar to this happen but not as severe as you're
describing. Regardless, the result is that if I had to start with a
new identity I would loose all that I created in Entourage specific to
it (projects, links, categories etc). I have extensive backups. I feel
its really important to use a backup system that does incremental
backups so that you can go back in time to a working database. That
way, you've only lost the info from now till the date that you've gone
back to. I've had to restore more than once and although its annoying
to loose some entries it would be really annoying to loose all that I
put into an Entourage database.

The two database systems I like are Data Backup and Retrospect.
However, Retrospect is really more for a small business' in my view.
Data Backup is good, cheaper, fast and easy to use. Plus, you can set
it on a rotational basis. In my case I've set mine for a 14 day
rotation. I am able to go back 14 days to recover anything. I have
this run at 3 am and use Quickeys to close down all open applications
before it runs.

The Entourage database is unfortunately very prone to corruption and
rebuild does not work reliably (in fact, I've had terrible results).
So backups are critical.

I also have time Machine running on a dedicated Firewire 250 gig drive
and it goes back months. This is valuable to me if I've deleted
something way back when and suddenly realize I want it. My 14 day
rotation might no go back far enough. Time Machine generally does and
so I usually find what I'm looking for even though it might take a
while for the day to turn up that I had the various item on my system.
I would not use Time Machine to back up your DB as 2.4 gigs is way too
large for frequent, ongoing backups. It would burn up my 250 gig drive
way too fast. I tend to keep my DB on the smaller size for this reason
and also just because Entourage's DB is so volatile. I'm thinking that
when they convert to Outlook for the Mac in 2010 a lot of our
Entourage issues will disappear - I hope!

 

[Alain]

Thank you Diane and Kerry

You are right about backups; I had obviously left the database out of my time machine backups for obvious reasons. I will have to consider other types of backups and your advice is very interesting.

 

[Diane Ross]

You are right about backups; I had obviously left the database out of my time
machine backups for obvious reasons. I will have to consider other types of
backups and your advice is very interesting.

Look at the alternative to backing up to Time Machine. This backs up your
Identity once a day to Time Machine.

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>

You can make your own Time Machine backup using this option:

Entourage and Time-Machine-like backup (creates chronological backup of
Identity can be used by both Tiger and Leopard allowing you to roll back to
previous dated backups.

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

 

[Alain]

Thank you Diane. I will try to implement this solution although I must admit that the procedure is still very complicated for a non-specialized user.
In the meantime I will try a manual copy of the database in a folder that is processed by Time Machine

Alain

 

[Kerry]

Thank you Diane. I will try to implement this solution although I must admit that the procedure is still very complicated for a non-specialized user..
In the meantime I will try a manual copy of the database in a folder thatis processed by Time Machine

Alain

I'd take a look at Data Backup. It is very straight forward and simple
to use. I has an option to wake your machine in prefs before running
the backup. Have your Entourage closed for backup. Since it can be set
to any number of days rotation, you can make sure you don't exceed
your storage capacity yet go back in time to a usable DB or even file
that you accidentally deleted etc. You can exclude things and it will
even make a bootable clone of your drive. There's a 30 day trial and I
believe its $59 but what's $59 for the value of your data.

I don't know what you're backing up to. If its a dedicated Firewire
drive or USB drive or as in my case I backup to two different external
HD's. Regardless, you should partition this drive - one partition for
Time Machine, one for Data Backup and any other partitions you might
want to store stuff (in my case, I have a large partition to store
data like Video Files such as movies I buy from iTunes and I don't
want them on my main drive).