Entourage Database not opening

[irfan]

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

I have a 23GB Database Identity file which has crashed. It was working fine and after i switched off the computer and started it a couple of hours later, Entourage would not start. It asked me to verify and rebuild the database. Both - after several attempts - were successfully done. Even after a successful rebuild i am unable to open Entourage.

I have another 50GB of space left in my hard disk after making several copies of the Identity.

Is there a limit that i have hit? How can i split the Entourage database - without opening it in Entourage. I have a backup which has all my stuff except the last 10 days emails. That is all that i need to recover - the latest inbox and sent mail.

Any clues on how i can do this?

 

[Diane Ross]

I have a 23GB Database Identity file which has crashed. It was working fine
and after i switched off the computer and started it a couple of hours later,
Entourage would not start. It asked me to verify and rebuild the database.
Both - after several attempts - were successfully done. Even after a
successful rebuild i am unable to open Entourage.

I have another 50GB of space left in my hard disk after making several copies
of the Identity.

Is there a limit that i have hit? How can i split the Entourage database -
without opening it in Entourage. I have a backup which has all my stuff except
the last 10 days emails. That is all that i need to recover - the latest inbox
and sent mail.

I think the limit you have hit is your hard drive space. 50GB is not that
much space. Your system files need a minimum of 10%. See this article about
rebuilding an Entourage X database. If you use a larger drive you most
likely will be able to rebuild.

<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>

You can't split the database. I have had great success in recovering
databases for clients, but never one that's 23 GB. At least, you have a
backup. I would look at more frequent backups for the future and you can
select to leave on server for additional backup. An imap account rather than
pop would be another option.

Let us know if a larger drive works for you. You'll have to install the OS
and Office on the drive. Move the first backup copy Entourage created and
try rebuilding that one.

Diane

 

[irfan]

Thanks Diane

I have cleared up space and now have 83GB space on the HD. I again started Entourage and it again went into the verify/rebuild mode. It takes about 4-5 hours for each! You can imagine the amount of patience required for this!

One point to note is that after the previous "successful" rebuild and a hard restart of the computer, I noticed that MyDay had picked up my appointments calendar so the database was working - but Entourage was not responding.

I used the trial version of Entouraid and managed to get 20 emails extracted from the database. These were in mbox format and worked when i placed them in an empty identity.

1) Since I need to recover the last 12 days' emails. Is it possible to use Entouraid or any other program and recover emails based on specific dates - Dec 20-30 emails in Inbox and Sent Mail?

2) Is there a file size limit on Entourage 2008 which kicks in when i cross 23GB? I have dealt with huge PST files in the past and know that despite claims to the contrary large files invariably crash in Outlook.

I am currently on a 5-6 hours waiting cycle to discover if the rebuild with 80GB HD space will work and will share this information with the forum but meanwhile will appreciate answers to the above queries.

Once again, thanks for your prompt response.

irfan

 

[Diane Ross]

1) Since I need to recover the last 12 days' emails. Is it possible to use
Entouraid or any other program and recover emails based on specific dates -
Dec 20-30 emails in Inbox and Sent Mail?

We don't have many reports on Entouraid. The few we get are divided between
it worked and complete failure.

2) Is there a file size limit on Entourage 2008 which kicks in when i cross
23GB? I have dealt with huge PST files in the past and know that despite
claims to the contrary large files invariably crash in Outlook.

See this for details on size.

I am currently on a 5-6 hours waiting cycle to discover if the rebuild with
80GB HD space will work and will share this information with the forum but
meanwhile will appreciate answers to the above queries.

I'm still concerned that you don't have enough space. Out of the 83 GB. You
have to loose 23GB for the duplicate Entourage makes. That only leaves you
with 60 GB.

I wouldn't delete the extras you have created when you tried rebuilding. Do
you have a disk that you can store them? You never know if they will be
useful for future tries. Most likely the first rebuild you did made the best
copy. I always advise users to backup in the Finder first just in case the
duplicate Entourage makes fails. It doesn't happen a lot, but sometimes,
during the copy the data gets duplicated in one database and it's totally
corrupted.

If you ever get Entourage to open, you can salvage the data. I highly
suggest you work on making your database smaller. See this article for some
ideas.

Options for end of year archiving (The Entourage Help Blog)
<http://blog.entourage.mvps.org/2008/12/options_for_end_of_year_archiving.ht
ml>
In case the above link does not work:

<http://tinyurl.com/9dvamb>

 

[irfan]

After six hours of waiting I again managed to get a "success" on both verify and rebuild. The resulting identity included a backup folder which i transferred to an external drive - liberating my HD of space - i once again had 83GB free.

I had a MUD with two identities, one a newly created almost blank one and the second the recently rebuilt one.

I shut down the computer and restarted. The MyDay calendar appeared to ensure that things were going right. I had set Entourage to ask for Identity before starting and it asked me for one. I started with the newly rebuilt one and the now all too familiar "Entourage needs to restart" sign appeared. There was no follow up window asking me to do a verify/rebuild. I switched it off and did the restart - again the same entourage needs to restart pop-up. Again, no request to verify/rebuild.

I have now run out of patience. I have a 23GB Database which is apparently good because it has been successfully verified and rebuilt. I have 80GB HD space on my computer, i have no other program running on my 2.4Ghz Dual Core 2GB RAM MacBook. But Entourage will not start.

Any suggestions?

 

[Kerry]

Any suggestions?

A couple of thoughts here. If you have Techtools Pro, run the File
Structure test from a remote volume -e.g. its edrive or whatever and
see if it is reporting any corrupted files. If it is, all you can do
is delete them. I doubt its corrupted as the rebuild would create
probably a file with the proper structure. Secondly, try your backup
file. If that opens, work on getting your database down dramatically.
I just did a rebuild on a Database and it for some reason stalled. My
database is just over 100 megs. I keep it lean by archiving to an
archive identity. I went to Time Machine and restored my file from a
backup that was 23 hours old. The reason for the rebuild is I suddenly
got a mail parse error from gmail. Since the rebuild didn't work I
thought I'd see if a backup worked. The 23 hour old backup works fine
and I was back in business in no time. In terms of file sizes, OSX is
rather robust but the file size you have in Entourage is probably
dangerous. You'd only want a database this size with an Industrial
Strength Database system. If you talk to a Microsoft tech rep they are
uncomfortable with people running databases that hit 1 gig. 23 gigs is
well.... You might have a pile of stuff in mail that is better suited
to server storage e.g checkout box.net. The other thing, by having a
database this size, its completely impractical to do Time Machine
backups which I find critical due to the problems with Entourage 08. I
have an 80 gig Time Machine partition which goes back 2 months. So I
can go back two months currently and recover any MUD. Once in the
archive file, it will only back that up once unless it is changed but
I only archive once a year - sometimes twice so you can see the
difference in backup and storage required. I really hope you can get
your identity opened as 23 gigs of data lost - well I'd be just crying.

 

[Diane Ross]

I started with the newly rebuilt one and the now all too familiar "Entourage
needs to restart" sign appeared.

Is this the exact error?

Try this.... drag the rebuilt Identity to the Shared folder, create a new
User in System Preferences and switch to the new User. Open Entourage and it
will create a new Microsoft User Data folder and new blank Identity. Drag
(it will copy) your Identity from shared (it will overwrite if it's the same
name) and test in the new User. If you get an error take a screenshot of the
error.

Let me know the results of this test.

I have now run out of patience.

I can appreciate your frustration, and we will do our best to help you.