Entourage 2008-need help cleaning huge database: 178GB

[jetjaguar]

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

Hi,

Please help: I've seen on the forums that many people consider a 15GB+ Entourage database to be huge. Mine is 178GB and takes up almost half of my hardrive! What do I do? How should I approach a database rebuild?

Here's what I think happened. I set up an out of office reply in Entourage Rules while i was away for 2 weeks. This Seemed harmless enough, but I returned to see that spam emails created a recursive loop of replies (oops). I had around 150,000 messages in my inbox and another 150,000 messages in my sent items.

It was a small miracle that i was able to delete all of these messages. As a result, my hardrive is mostly filled up. Entourage seems fine, Computer performance is somewhat down, and I obviously need to clean up this mess. I only have 45GB free and not enough space to make a backup of the 178GB database. I was thinking of backing up to an external HD, but don't have a free one at the moment. I'm in a bit of a bind, any advice would be appreciated.

If i have to buy and use a new external HD, so be it.

Thanks.
JJ

 

[jetjaguar]

One idea:
Since I'm on an Exchange server, is it at all possible to just get rid of the current database in lieu of a rebuild? what would be the consequences of this approach?

 

[Diane Ross]

Since I'm on an Exchange server, is it at all possible to just get rid of the
current database in lieu of a rebuild? what would be the consequences of this
approach?

Compacting and backing up the Entourage database

<http://tinyurl.com/mzo9l7>

Delete the Microsoft Exchange account in Entourage (under Tools in the Menu
bar) before you compact or rebuild the Entourage database. Then re-create
the Microsoft Exchange account in Entourage after compacting or rebuilding
of the database is complete.

However....

It's possible that you don't have enough room to compress. My suggestion
would be to simply create a new Identity in Entourage and let it sync back
up to the server. If you have any info under folders "On My Computer" you
can use File --> Export everything as Entourage archive (.rge) file. This
can be imported into a new Identity. It does not get categories for events,
notes or tasks. If you need more info on how to get everything including
categories, let me know.

BTW, that was some experience you had.