Help! All Files Vanished

[michelezug]

Entourage 2001 Version 9.0 (2509)
Mac OS 9.1

About an hour ago, I was downloading email and Entourage kept freezing when
attempting to download one of the emails. I force-quit Entourage and then
could not get Entourage to open again. No error message appeared.

I restarted the computer. When I opened Entourage, all MY folders in the
Folder List had vanished! I'm left with only the basic folders: Inbox,
Outbox, Sent Items, Drafts, Deleted Items and the links to other Entourage
programs: Address Book, Calendar, Tasks, Notes, Custom Views and Microsoft
news Server.

Other info that might or might not be useful:

*Last night I reworked my folder system, but I hadn't adjusted my rules yet.
Is it possible that Entourage just self destructed when it was trying to
sort the incoming email?

*I tried rebuilding my database: restarting Entourage while holding he
option key and choosing the first option. No luck there.

Can anyone help me!

Sadly I haven't backed up recently, the last time was Feb of 03. But when I
go to the backup file and choose the message folder, the files are all still
missing!

Thanks in advance.
[email protected]

 

[Diane Ross]

Select Switch Identity and see if your old identity is still listed. If it's
not there, then...



It's possible that Entourage is looking in the wrong location for your MUD
folder. You probably have more than one Documents folder.



Entourage expects the folder to be in your Documents folder. For OS X
users, that's the Documents folder in your User's folder.



Open Entourage, create a new identity and name it something unique so you
can do a search on it and it will be the only thing that shows up.



Now do a search in the Finder for this new identity. This will tell you
where Entourage is looking for Identities.




Fix if you have more than one Microsoft User Data Folder...

Move the
identity folder you want to use to the Office Identities folder that
Entourage is recognizing. Your identity is named "Main" by default. Be sure
to rename one so you do not overwrite.



Switch Identities to view your mail. If you have not used the new identity,
delete it. If you have used it and want to combine the new mail with your
original database, just drag each folder to the desktop. this creates an
MBOX file. Switch identities. Drag the MBOX files into the folder window of
Entourage.



Remember keep a backup of all data before deleting.

 

[michelezug]

Thanks for responding.

Well, I checked and found that I do not have multiple MUD folders and
Entourage is looking in the correct location. All my mail folders have
simply vanished without a trace.

I only have a Main Identity and a Main Identity Backup (the one from my last
backup in February).

I am able to switch identities, and access my mail folder circa Feb 2003,
but am still not able to find where all my folders that existed up until
10am this morning have disappeared to.

I only have 1 Documents folder. In it I found my MUD folder which contains
the Office 2001 Identities which in turn contains the above mentioned 2
identities.

Is it possible that all those mail folders were simply erased by some fluke
error? There's nothing in my trash or rescued items folder from the crash
that started all these problems in the first place. It just boggle my mind
that everything could just disappear without a trace.

Has this happened to anyone else out there? Help!
Michele

 

[Diane Ross]

Well, I checked and found that I do not have multiple MUD folders and
Entourage is looking in the correct location. All my mail folders have
simply vanished without a trace.

Where is the second MUD folder located if you have only one Document folder?

I only have a Main Identity and a Main Identity Backup (the one from my last
backup in February).

I am able to switch identities, and access my mail folder circa Feb 2003,
but am still not able to find where all my folders that existed up until
10am this morning have disappeared to.

I'm assuming you can access Main Identitiy Backup, but not the Main
Identity. Switch to this Identity. Quit Entourage. Hold Option key and start
Entourage. Select Rebuild. Most likely you will have to do the Complex
rebuild.

I only have 1 Documents folder. In it I found my MUD folder which contains
the Office 2001 Identities which in turn contains the above mentioned 2
identities.

Is it possible that all those mail folders were simply erased by some fluke
error? There's nothing in my trash or rescued items folder from the crash
that started all these problems in the first place. It just boggle my mind
that everything could just disappear without a trace.

I doubt they are erased. Have you tried the other MUD folder Main identity?
I would rename it and move it to the same location as Main Identity Backup.

 

[michelezug]

Thanks again for trying to help me out of this mess.

Where is the second MUD folder located if you have only one Document folder?

To clarify, there's only one MUD folder, with 2 identities (Main and Main
Backup) inside that folder. Actually now there's also a 3rd Identity there
that I created yesterday while trying to sort this thing out.

I'm assuming you can access Main Identitiy Backup, but not the Main
Identity. Switch to this Identity. Quit Entourage. Hold Option key and start
Entourage. Select Rebuild. Most likely you will have to do the Complex
rebuild.

Actually I can access any and all identities w/o problems.

I've already rebuilt my Main Identity (the one where all the folders
disappeared), I did the simple rebuild yesterday within 45minues of the
incident. And I did the complex rebuild earlier this afternoon.

Sadly, no change... all personal folders are still missing.
The Inbox, Sent Items Folder and Drafts folder were are still intact.
Although all my old reminders have reappeared back to 2001. But that seems
to be a minor annoyance compared with the missing email and I think that
happened because I ran the complex rebuild.

If it matters, I haven't downloaded any mail since this craziness started.
Didn't want to tempt fate.

I doubt they are erased. Have you tried the other MUD folder Main identity?
I would rename it and move it to the same location as Main Identity Backup.

As I mentioned before, there's only one MUD folder. All identities are in
the same location.

Any other suggestions? I've combed all possible sources I can think of for
an answer. Has anyone else out there had this happen to them? It's just so
bizarre!