Location Issues

[Hazel Greenberg]

One of the ways I backup Entourage is to copy the current identity to an
external archive drive. I have just discovered that I may be copying the
wrong identity. I went to the Entourage 2008 Identities folder, and there I
found 3 identities‹the one that existed at the time of importing it from
2004, a rebuilt identity, and a backup apparently from which I had to
rebuild the new identity. I think I may have accidentally been using the
wrong identity, i.e., the backup. But from this identity I was able to
export an .rge file, so it must be OK. The problem that I now have is that I
want to be sure I am backing up the right one in this folder. To be sure, I
opened the Database in each identity, and all of them were not current. None
of them is as updated as what I have when I have the identity open and in
use. I don¹t understand that, nor do I now know which one to be saving
because of that. Can anyone offer advice in this dilemma?

Also, while I expected the .rge file to be exported to the desktop or some
major Entourage folder, I found it in an obscure folder within Documents
that has nothing whatsoever to do with Entourage or any application for that
matter. Should I worry about that? I copied it over to the archive drive. Is
that worth doing? Could I get back up and running should the current
database fail?

Thanks.

 

[Diane Ross]

One of the ways I backup Entourage is to copy the current identity to an
external archive drive. I have just discovered that I may be copying the
wrong identity.

Let's make sure you are looking in the correct Entourage 2008 Identities
folder. Some users will copy the folder to another location and get confused
because there are now two Identities folders.

Open Entourage and select "Switch Identity". Name the new Identity qquark.
Do you see this Identity in the same Identities folder as your other
Identities? If no, then search for qquark. Since this is a non-word you'll
only find one search result.

I would say to check the date modified for the database file, but since you
recently opened them all this will no longer help you find your Identity.

Also, while I expected the .rge file to be exported to the desktop or some
major Entourage folder, I found it in an obscure folder within Documents that
has nothing whatsoever to do with Entourage or any application for that
matter. Should I worry about that? I copied it over to the archive drive. Is
that worth doing? Could I get back up and running should the current database
fail?

When saving, YOU need to select the destination like in any Finder Save
window.

 

[Hazel Greenberg]

Let's make sure you are looking in the correct Entourage 2008 Identities
folder. Some users will copy the folder to another location and get confused
because there are now two Identities folders.

Open Entourage and select "Switch Identity". Name the new Identity qquark.
Do you see this Identity in the same Identities folder as your other
Identities? If no, then search for qquark. Since this is a non-word you'll
only find one search result.
Yes, this new identity was in the same folder I was looking at, but this
process reminded me of another way of checking the identities. I used switched
to the identities as a way to check them rather than opening the database. By
doing that, I discovered that I had been using the right one after all and
that the one named Backup required a rebuild. So I trashed that one. Thank you
very much.

But I am curious as to why opening the ³Database² in the Identities folder
does not work‹or rather does not provide one with an up-to-the-minute copy.

I would say to check the date modified for the database file, but since you
recently opened them all this will no longer help you find your Identity.



When saving, YOU need to select the destination like in any Finder Save
window.
Thanks. I guess I just didn¹t notice a place to change where it could be
saved. So, can this .rge file be used to restore Entourage if necessary? I
have some memory of its being very complicated to do that.

 

[Diane Ross]

But I am curious as to why opening the ³Database² in the Identities folder
does not work‹or rather does not provide one with an up-to-the-minute copy.

Clicking on the database folder is not the accepted way to open Entourage.
I'm not sure why it didn't open the current copy though.

So, can this .rge file be used to restore Entourage if necessary? I
have some memory of its being very complicated to do that.

Yes, but it's not complete. You need to enter accounts, schedules etc. It
also doesn't get categories for events, notes and tasks.

You also have to move the messages/folders from the .rge folder to their
correct location, but that's an easy process.

See these movies for dealing with MBOX and .rge files.

<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/video/index.html>

 

[Hazel Greenberg]

So I would be better off with a copy of my main identity on an external
hard drive, then. There isn¹t any issue with that, is there? I haven¹t been
doing that everyday, but I can certainly start. It¹s hard to remember to
make a copy on Time Machine and on my firewire drive every so often. I do
not include Entourage in those regular backups.

 

[Diane Ross]

So I would be better off with a copy of my main identity on an external hard
drive, then. There isn¹t any issue with that, is there? I haven¹t been doing
that everyday, but I can certainly start. It¹s hard to remember to make a copy
on Time Machine and on my firewire drive every so often. I do not include
Entourage in those regular backups.

You can use Automator to schedule your backups. One option is to copy the
Entourage identity to a folder outside of the MUD folder so Time Machine can
backup it up without corruption once a day.

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>

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>

Diane