Database Utility fails to rebuild corrupted database: NOW what?

[SG]

Mac 10.5.8
Entourage 2008

Entourage fails to open. I'm told "Your Office Database is damaged." I
tried to use Database Utility, as suggested, but it hung up on step 5
and I had to Force Quit.

I replaced the Microsoft User Data file with a backup made a month ago
-- long before problems started. Again Entourage fails to open and I'm
told "Your Office Database is damaged," and AGAIN, Database Utility
hangs up on Step 5. (I gave it 3 hours before a Force Quit.)

NOW what?

 

[Diane_Ross_MVP]

Entourage fails to open. I'm told "Your Office Database is damaged." I
tried to use Database Utility, as suggested, but it hung up on step 5
and I had to Force Quit.

When Entourage hangs on step 5 it's usually a lack of free drive space.

How big is your database?

How much free space on your drive? How to find:

I replaced the Microsoft User Data file with a backup made a month ago
-- long before problems started. Again Entourage fails to open and I'm
told "Your Office Database is damaged," and AGAIN, Database Utility
hangs up on Step 5.

Options:

How did you make the backup? If you used Time Machine that could be the
problem with the backup.

You can try deleting this file in your User's --> Library Preference to see
if that is giving you a false error.

com.microsoft.OfficeNotifications.plist

 

[SG]

Thank you Diane -- my answers are below, but here, in short:

Entourage database is 4.37 GB and there is 27.7 GB free space on my
186 GB drive. Seems to me that should be enough room.

I thought that the Time Machine backup might be a problem and so tried
a "SuperDuper" backup file as well. Same problem with both.

I deleted com.microsoft.OfficeNotifications.plist but still got the
error message on trying to open Entourage.

What next? I pray that there WILL be a solution to this problem!

Sandra

When Entourage hangs on step 5 it's usually a lack of free drive space.
How big is your database?

4.37 GB

How much free space on your drive? How to find:

27.7 GB free of a 186 GB drive

Options:

How did you make the backup? If you used Time Machine that could be the
problem with the backup.

I thought of that and tried another "SuperDuper" backup file as well.
Same problem with both.

You can try deleting this file in your User's --> Library Preference to see
if that is giving you a false error.

com.microsoft.OfficeNotifications.plist

I deleted this, but still got the error message on trying to open
Entourage.

 

[Diane_Ross_MVP]

Entourage database is 4.37 GB and there is 27.7 GB free space on my
186 GB drive. Seems to me that should be enough room.

<giggle> You need 10-15% free just to run your computer. To rebuild you need
tons of free space. Just read this article.

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>

Does your database open? If yes, forget the rebuild and export your data as
individual files for import into a new Identity. I do rebuilds for clients
if you can't do it yourself.

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>

 

[SG]

<giggle> You need 10-15% free just to run your computer. To rebuild you need
tons of free space. Just read this article.

Rebuilding a damaged database that exceeded size limit

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

In case the above link does not work:

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

Okay, I pared down the HD to 85.5 GB free. Then tried, again, to
rebuild, but it still hung up at the end of stage 5. I gave it 2 hours
before giving up.

Does your database open?

Entourage can't connect with it. When I click on the database icon
directly, it opens Entourage 2004 (curiously, not 2008), and shows an
empty database, as if I were starting Entourage for the first time.


This is my back-up, supposedly good database that won't rebuild. What
now?

Thank you for your help. I'm praying!

Sandra

P.S. Every time I try to rebuild, I get a "database (rebuild)" in the
Main Identity folder. These take up space, in addition to the original
database. Which do you suggest I delete?

 

[Diane_Ross_MVP]

Okay, I pared down the HD to 85.5 GB free. Then tried, again, to
rebuild, but it still hung up at the end of stage 5. I gave it 2 hours
before giving up.

All I can say is with 500 GB free I have been able to rebuild a database
that the user could not on their drive.

Entourage can't connect with it. When I click on the database icon
directly, it opens Entourage 2004 (curiously, not 2008), and shows an
empty database, as if I were starting Entourage for the first time.

Don't click on a database to open. If Entourage 2004 is opening, this sounds
like a Entourage 2004 Identity not Entourage 2008.

It's important that you are trying to recover the right Identity.

P.S. Every time I try to rebuild, I get a "database (rebuild)" in the
Main Identity folder. These take up space, in addition to the original
database. Which do you suggest I delete?

This file disappears when the utility completes. Right now they should be a
copy. Deleting them will clear up some space, but it's not going to give you
the space you need to complete the repair.

 

[SG]

Diane, how can I send the database to you for repair?

BTW: the database I tried to open directly that opened with Entourage
2004 was in the 2008 Itentities file, not the 2004 Itentities file.
I've since moved all of Entourage 2004 (application and file) off the
computer.

 

[Diane Ross]

Diane, how can I send the database to you for repair?

I contacted you via your email. Be sure to check your spam folder.

BTW: the database I tried to open directly that opened with Entourage
2004 was in the 2008 Itentities file, not the 2004 Itentities file.
I've since moved all of Entourage 2004 (application and file) off the
computer.

I wonder if those were Time Machine backups put in the wrong place.


--
Diane Ross, Microsoft Mac MVP
Entourage Help Page <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/>
Entourage Help Blog <http://blog.entourage.mvps.org/>
YouTalk <http://tinyurl.com/bzcrjy> <-- Entourage mailing list
Twitter: follow <http://twitter.com/entouragehelp>

 

[SG]

I contacted you via your email. Be sure to check your spam folder.




I wonder if those were Time Machine backups put in the wrong place.

--
Diane Ross, Microsoft Mac MVP
Entourage Help Page   <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/>
Entourage Help Blog  <http://blog.entourage.mvps.org/>
YouTalk <http://tinyurl.com/bzcrjy> <-- Entourage mailing list
Twitter: follow <http://twitter.com/entouragehelp>

 

[SG]

I contacted you via your email. Be sure to check your spam folder.

& I've answered.

I wonder if those were Time Machine backups put in the wrong place.

This is a terrifying thought, but I think it more likely that it did
so because Entourage 2004 was set as the default application to open
it -- I checked "get info".

 

[Kerry]

& I've answered.



This is a terrifying thought, but I think it more likely that it did
so because Entourage 2004 was set as the default application to open
it -- I checked "get info".

I can tell Diane has been giving you good help as I've watched your
thread. I just thought I'd jump in here to let you know that rebuild
frequently doesn't work and Microsoft is aware of this. Rebuild
operates at a different level than 04. When rebuild doesn't work I've
always done one of two things (the Ent08 db is not nearly as robust as
it should be): 1. create a new identity and import my data 2. go to a
backup db before the corruption. 95% of the time I've chosen 2 as I
don't want to loose all my links, categories and Projects that happens
when you create a new DB. If I do, I might as well use the Apple apps.

On that final note, if you don't use the extensive functionality of
Ent like I do (categories, links, SQL like searches) just use the
Apple apps as backing these up is efficient and I've never since 2003
had them fail. Entourage yes.

 

[Diane_Ross_MVP]

Rebuild
operates at a different level than 04. When rebuild doesn't work I've
always done one of two things (the Ent08 db is not nearly as robust as
it should be): 1. create a new identity and import my data 2. go to a
backup db before the corruption.

The user is not able to open the Identity to export the data and backups
seem to have the same problem AFAIK.

I always create a new Identity after a rebuild. Rebuilding often only gives
a user the opportunity to salvage their data.

 

[Kerry]

The user is not able to open the Identity to export the data and backups
seem to have the same problem AFAIK.

I always create a new Identity after a rebuild. Rebuilding often only gives
a user the opportunity to salvage their data.

Yes, I know Diane. I'm throwing this in so that others think of having
a good backup strategy in place otherwise the loss can be as simple as
loosing your rich info and if that's the case you might as well use
the Apple apps to loosing all your info.

When I've had corruption, generally if I go to my most recent 4 am
backup it will be fine as something has usually happened in that time-
frame. If that backup is no good I just keep reverting to no further
than 3 days of backups as that's too much info to loose. If I do go
back 3 days, I just then use the info in iCal created since the
backup, manually move it to Entourage backup everything then start
sync up again fresh.

I've been very fortunate of late as I've been now running for 3 or 4
months straight with no sync failures/errors to mobileme, my Palm and
my iPhone and I've not had one database corruption. However, from past
experience before I got the sync workaround solidly down this was
certainly not the case and I know what I had to go through to make
sure I didn't loose all my hard work. And it works.

 

[KAEsau]

I had the same problem last week and found a possible workaround,
though I will say try it at your own risk.

After the database rebuild hung for a couple of hours, I force quit
it. Then I went into the Main Identity folder (before launching any
office programs!) and renamed the "Database" file to "Database.save"
and the "Database (Rebuild)" file to "Database", thus getting
Entourage to use the not-completely-rebuilt database. This then opened
fine in Entourage, but to be safe, I did another Database rebuild
(using the not-completely-rebuilt database). The second rebuild
finished with no problems and I have not have problems since.

As far as the free space needed, you should only need a bit more than
the database size, but never more than 2+ times the database size.
27GB was way more than enough. For a 4.37 GB database, 9GB free is
plenty.

Keith

 

[SG]

Interesting suggestion, Keith. Diane is working on my database: we
shall see. It's a copy of one from a SuperDuper backup, before the
corruption. KAEsau, I took quite a bit of comfort of late knowing that
I had most of my contacts on MobileMe. I'm going to look into having
parallel systems once my database is working.

Sandra, with fingers and toes crossed

 

[Diane_Ross_MVP]

As far as the free space needed, you should only need a bit more than
the database size, but never more than 2+ times the database size.
27GB was way more than enough. For a 4.37 GB database, 9GB free is
plenty.

That has not been my experience.

 

[Diane_Ross_MVP]

After the database rebuild hung for a couple of hours, I force quit
it.

Was it hung in Activity Monitor or simply apparently frozen? You can monitor
a rebuild using the Activity Monitor. Watch the Microsoft Database daemon.
When it's at zero, it's quit.