database keeps getting corrupted

[marcjohnson]

I've been having entourage trouble with Entourage for about a month.
Initially I would periodically get errors a few times a day that my
database was corrupt, and then Entourage would crash. I tried many
times to rebuild the database, but they always failed. I eventually
just started a new identity and transfered all of the emails over to
the new identity (it took forever). Once I had the new identity I was
able to rebuild the database (so I do have a functioning backup) and
everything was fine for a couple of weeks. Now I'm getting the "the
Database Daemon has encountered an unknown error...." almost
immediately after I starting up Entourage. I'm currently trying to
rebuild the database, again.

My database is large, 8 GB. Is that the root problem?

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

Now I'm getting the "the
Database Daemon has encountered an unknown error...."

Try trashing some of the microsoft preference files. A corruption in
some of these files can lead to mis-detection of corruption (even when
the database is just fine)

Corentin

 

[Diane Ross]

Try trashing some of the microsoft preference files.

Try deleting this preference file in your User's --> Library Preferences:

com.microsoft.OfficeNotifications.plist

Other options to check:

Bad RAM.

Being low on disk space. To check your disk space, use the Activity Monitor.
Click on Disk Usage in the bottom menu bar and select the volume where you
have Office installed. You can also use Disk Utility to see detailed
information about a disk or volume. To learn more, open Disk Utility in the
/Applications/Utilities folder and refer to Disk Utility Help.

 

[marcjohnson]

Try deleting this preference file in your User's --> Library Preferences:

com.microsoft.OfficeNotifications.plist

Other options to check:

Bad RAM.

Being low on disk space. To check your disk space, use the Activity Monitor.
Click on Disk Usage in the bottom menu bar and select the volume where you
have Office installed. You can also use Disk Utility to see detailed
information about a disk or volume. To learn more, open Disk Utility in the
/Applications/Utilities folder and refer to Disk Utility Help.

Here we go again. I deleted that preference. The database was still
not usable.
I went back to a functional backup copy of the database from 2 weeks
ago (which is when I got this computer). After loading it back up
with the recent messages from the server I deleted about a GB of stuff
and did a database rebuild. This seemed to work, no errors.

I decided it was time to get my database down to a reasonable size, so
I created several identities where I archived about 3/4 of my emails
and deleted them from my main identity. When I was done I compacted
my main identity database with the database utility. Once again it
went through the whole process and then froze up at the very last step
leaving me with a spinning beach ball until I finally force quit.

I ran disk utility to check the disk and permissions, no problems
detected. I'm testing the RAM now with memtest, but nothing is
showing up yet.

I can't tell whether the problem is Entourage or the computer.

Any other ideas?

Marc

 

[Diane Ross]

Once again it
went through the whole process and then froze up at the very last step
leaving me with a spinning beach ball until I finally force quit.

This can happen if you don't have enough free space. I have a 500GB free
drive that I use to rebuild client's databases.

Rather than try the rebuild, I would export the data into a new Identity.

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>

 

[marcjohnson]

This can happen if you don't have enough free space. I have a 500GB free
drive that I use to rebuild client's databases.

Rather than try the rebuild, I would export the data into a new Identity.

It's a 500 GB hard drive with over 400 GB free. It has 4 GB of
memory. Brand new.

This database was rebuilt from scratch starting with a new identity
less than 3 weeks ago following the advise of many of your previous
messages to others. It didn't solve the problem for me.

I was having similar problems to now on my old computer before I moved
to the new computer and started the new identity. That computer
turned out to have a bad hard drive (disk utility wasn't able to
detect it). Is it possible that this too is a bad hard drive and I'm
just lucky enough to get back too back bad hard drives?

BTW, on the first pass memtest didn't find any problems with RAM.
I'll probably let it run over night to see if a few passes picks
something up.

Marc

 

[Diane Ross]

It's a 500 GB hard drive with over 400 GB free. It has 4 GB of
memory. Brand new.

This should work.

This database was rebuilt from scratch starting with a new identity
less than 3 weeks ago following the advise of many of your previous
messages to others. It didn't solve the problem for me.

Are you experiencing other errors like crashing or is it just this database
is corrupted message?

I was having similar problems to now on my old computer before I moved
to the new computer and started the new identity. That computer
turned out to have a bad hard drive (disk utility wasn't able to
detect it). Is it possible that this too is a bad hard drive and I'm
just lucky enough to get back too back bad hard drives?

I would only be guessing that it's a bad drive. My first instinct is to say
it's not your drive. Have you deleted all the Microsoft preferences? When
you moved over from the old computer did you migrate your data or did you
clean install? I'm wondering if you brought over something stinky from the
old drive. See option at end to test in a clean environment.

Let's do a stress test on your database.

1) Under File --> Export, select "items to an Entourage archive" --> all
items.

If there is corruption this will fail. If it completes, go to step 3. If it
does fail, then do this:

2) Under File --> Export, select "items to an Entourage archive", but this
time select one item at a time. Do Mail then follow with Local contacts etc.

This will give you an idea of where the corruption is located. Regardless of
success, continue with step 3: export as MBOX files.

3) Download the "Archive Message Folders" script and use it to export as
MBOX files. The script will fail on a folder with corruption. You will need
to divide that folder into sections and drag the folders to the desktop
until you identify the corrupted message. Sometimes you can drag the
individual message to the desktop but often it will not import back into
Entourage, but you will have a copy. Delete the bad message(s).

Export folders as MBOX files using a script
<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/database/export_mbox.html>

Option: When exporting as .rge file, you can select to delete after
exporting. Sometimes doing this then importing the file back will clear some
corruption. This is where working off a copy is highly advised.

Note: Rebuilding does not clear up some problems in a database like
preferences etc that are actually stored in the database and not in
preferences.

If your database passes these tests then you can turn off the notify in
database utility.

===============
Test in a clean environment:

An option that you could try is to partition your drive and clean install
the OS then clean install Office and update. You can copy over your
Identity, but don't copy anything else. Test in this clean environment and
see if the problems go away.

You can partition your drive using Disk Utility without removing data. I
created a test partition for Snow Leopard and Office and it only took about
8GB total but you would need to give it a bit more for virtual memory. You
can delete the partition after testing.

Hope this helps!

 

[marcjohnson]

I am experiencing other problems. Lots of stalling with all kinds of
programs. I wasn't sure whether these other problems were ultimately
caused by entourage, or whether the two things had a root problem.

It was a clean install with migration using timemachine (yes, I now
know TM stinks for backing up the database).

I think this might information might narrow the problem.

I took the same the exact same MUD folder from this morning (huge)
which I had copied onto an external drive, copied it onto my old
computer (which now has a new hard drive) in place of its MUD folder,
and repeated the process from this morning. I deleted the same 4 GB
of emails and rebuilt the database. No problems, and both the
deletion and the compacting took a fraction of the time that it had
taken on the bigger/faster/newer computer.

The old computer only has the SL operating system and MS Office, so
either the new computer is screwed up (hard drive or the like), or
there is something outside of the MUD folder that is causing the
problems. Would you agree?

Marc

 

[Diane Ross]

I am experiencing other problems. Lots of stalling with all kinds of
programs. I wasn't sure whether these other problems were ultimately
caused by entourage, or whether the two things had a root problem.

I wouldn't expect Entourage to cause problems with your other applications.

It was a clean install with migration using timemachine (yes, I now
know TM stinks for backing up the database).

More than stinks. Time Machine should NOT be used to backup Entourage while
it's open or any other Microsoft application is open including the Microsoft
Database daemon which is hidden.

I think this might information might narrow the problem.

Yes this helps.

I took the same the exact same MUD folder from this morning (huge)
which I had copied onto an external drive, copied it onto my old
computer (which now has a new hard drive) in place of its MUD folder,
and repeated the process from this morning. I deleted the same 4 GB
of emails and rebuilt the database. No problems, and both the
deletion and the compacting took a fraction of the time that it had
taken on the bigger/faster/newer computer.

After you run that database through the stress tests you know it's safe to
use. Rebuilding is often just the first step in a recovery.

The old computer only has the SL operating system and MS Office, so
either the new computer is screwed up (hard drive or the like), or
there is something outside of the MUD folder that is causing the
problems. Would you agree?

Yes. It could very well be the migration from Time Machine.

Since you have migrated over everything to the new computer, you can either
move to a new Identity and start with all clean preferences or you can
partition your drive giving almost all the free space to a new partition
then install everything clean and only drag over your documents and
applications that don't require an installer. After you get everything over
you might want to use it as a sandbox.

We've discussed using SuperDuper!(backup software) before, but this is an
excellent time to remind users about a feature it has that protects you from
system updates that so bad.

One of the options in SuperDuper! is to create what the author calls a
"Sandbox". It's used to revert to pre-update state of your OS. Here's a
description of how this option works:

A Sandbox is a bootable copy of your system, stored on another hard drive or
partition, that shares your personal documents and data with the original.
With SuperDuper!, you actually use the Sandbox as your startup volume. You
can safely install any system updates, drivers or programs in the Sandbox,
without worrying about what might happen to your system. If anything goes
wrong, you can simply start up from the original system. SuperDuper! has
preserved it in its original, pre-disaster state but all your new and
changed personal documents are totally up to date. Within minutes, you're up
and running again without having to go through a difficult and
time-consuming restore process.

SuperDuper! Is $27.95. I¹m not affiliated with the product. Just a satisfied
user. <http://www.shirt-pocket.com/>

 

[marcjohnson]

The database appears to have passed the stress test when performed on
my 'old' computer.

I took my new computer to Apple and they ran the diagnostics. Bad
hard drive and motherboard.

I'm on a roll, but at least I know the root problem, two bad hard
drives in a row.

Thanks for your help.

Marc

 

[Diane Ross]

The database appears to have passed the stress test when performed on
my 'old' computer.

Good news! At least with my stress tests you end up with some backup files.

I took my new computer to Apple and they ran the diagnostics. Bad
hard drive and motherboard.

I'm on a roll, but at least I know the root problem, two bad hard
drives in a row.

Lightening does strike in the same place more than once and you've proven
that. Let's hope the third time is the charm.