everything is gone

P

photo1

Help!

I was just typing an email message when I received the error "action
could not be completed". Don't know if that message was regarding my
typing an email or one of the entourage automated activities such as
checking email.

I force quit entourage, and now EVERYTHING is gone: calendar, address
book, email cache, etc. When I restarted entourage it started the
prompts as if it were the first time opening a newly installed
application.

Is there any way to get the old stuff back? This is cause for total
panic as I have business contacts, meetings, and emails that are really
important.

I've surfed this discussion board a bit and am now wondering if my
super slow mac g5 is bogged down because of entourage issues or office
2004 issues that I had not been aware of?

Help!
 
M

Michel Bintener

See if Entourage>Switch Identity gives you a list of two or more users; if
it does, select the name of your old identity, and confirm. If there's only
one user name in that list, see if the database file in
~/Documents/Microsoft User Data/Office 2004 Identities/<your identity>/ is
more than just a few MB large. Post back with more info if you can't solve
the problem the way I described it. Also, tell us if Office 2004 has been
updated to the latest version (11.2.1), and if you have made a backup of
your Microsoft User Data folder, or your Entourage identity, at some point
in the not too distant past.
 
D

Diane Ross [MVP]

I force quit entourage, and now EVERYTHING is gone:
Click to expand...

If your data is still missing, then do a search for "Microsoft User Data"
and check invisible files. The 'lost+found' directory is created by fsck if
it finds orphaned files during the boot process, or by the user running Disk
Utility. These files are invisible and might contain your missing MUD
folder.

Steps for finding lost database:

<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/faq_topic/identities.html#id2>
 
P

photo1

Diane said:
If your data is still missing, then do a search for "Microsoft User Data"
and check invisible files. The 'lost+found' directory is created by fsck if
it finds orphaned files during the boot process, or by the user running Disk
Utility. These files are invisible and might contain your missing MUD
folder.

Steps for finding lost database:

<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/faq_topic/identities.html#id2>

--
Diane Ross, Mac MVP
Entourage Help Page <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/>
Entourage Blog <http://blogs.msdn.com/entourage/> lists the EHP as one of
the top five resources.
Click to expand...

Thanks for your suggestions - we tried both of these and found
absolutely nothing. Took it to apple and computer is getting full
workover - they were unable to find the missing data through all of
their diagnostic methods. They are doing a tune-up now, but they doubt
the files will be found during tuneup. Entourage acts as if it were
just installed for the first time on the computer on 2/21.

We have to start from scratch, and I mean scratch... will be
considering whether to use entourage or move to different email
program. We're in the habit of backing up projects, finances, etc.,
but not the email files.

Thanks for your help.
 
P

photo1

This is a painful reminder to back up the microsoft user data files....
we had not been doing that.

There are no identities to switch to: in fact all of the user identity
info and preferences have been reset. I do believe we have to start
from scratch.
 
T

Thomas

photo1 said:
Help!

I was just typing an email message when I received the error "action
could not be completed". Don't know if that message was regarding my
typing an email or one of the entourage automated activities such as
checking email.

I force quit entourage, and now EVERYTHING is gone: calendar, address
book, email cache, etc. When I restarted entourage it started the
prompts as if it were the first time opening a newly installed
application.

Is there any way to get the old stuff back? This is cause for total
panic as I have business contacts, meetings, and emails that are really
important.

I've surfed this discussion board a bit and am now wondering if my
super slow mac g5 is bogged down because of entourage issues or office
2004 issues that I had not been aware of?

Help!
Click to expand...


SO ! THIS JUST HAPPENED TO ME LAST WEEK! And guess what, I actually
reached someone at MicroSoft for help - from Bangladesh to Nova Scotia
- an actual person walked me through a search on my hard drive that
discovered 4 complete sets of "Document" folders that Entrourage had
created on its own at 4 different start-ups ... each with a separate
"main identity". Doing a "command i " on each, I found the one that
was over 250 MB while all the others were the same at 18.1 MB (at
installation). Through all those away, then moved that "Documents"
folder onto the main, hard drive window, and restarted. And man, was I
happy to see my 6 months worth of data back. Good luck.
 
P

Pitch

Also do a search for just the word:

Database

(capitalized). I've seen computers where this "Database" file was
inadvertently moved from its Office 2004 Identities: Main Identity
location and placed completely on its own.

I convert many Mac users from its default Mail to Entourage, and the
first thing I tell them is that the care for this Microsoft User Data
folder is of extreme importance. The first thing I do is have them set
up a weekly calendar event that pops up each week to remind them to:
1. Go to Documents: Microsoft User Data
2. Click on it, and hit Command-D. This duplicates the entire MUD
folder.
3. Append the name with the current date.
4. Put this backed-up folder some place where you can store archives.
5. Every month, delete the oldest version of this backed-up MUD folder.


While this doesn't prevent a disaster if their computer is stolen, or
the hard drive grinds to a halt, it gets them extremely
conscious-weekly, to be precise-that in the world of email,
calendars and attachments, their digital world hinges on their MUD
folder. At some point, they realize it'd be a good idea to burn a CD of
this MUD, copy it to an external HD, etc., but this single once-a-week
Office Notification screaming at them every Wednesday morning is the
best way to create a conscious habit I've ever come up with.
 
S

superjedigeek

Had this happen to me when I moved my User->Documents folder to an
external drive after performing an install of 10.4 last fall.

I used the Tiger 10.4 Migration Assistant. It moved EVERYTHING to the
external drive except the MS User Database (called Main Identity). I
believe it actually moved the Database, too, but there was something
that triggered Entourage to replace the 4.1GB Main Identity Database
with an empty 18MB Main Identity Database when I first opened it on the
external drive.

In all likelihood, if the Database I was moving was called something
else, it may have popped up when I tried to switch identities. As it
was, the only available identity was the one called Main Identity.

Be very wary of this Database (keep it backed up). I even sent the
external drive to DriveSavers - they told me no dice on a recovery of
any location that may have an image of the original Database. They
found pieces of the database, and the individual emails, but piecing it
together was impossible because of Microsoft's proprietary structure.
 
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