HELP Entourage Compacting failed. A read/write error has occurred (-40)

  • Thread starter tina.herringshaw
  • Start date
T

tina.herringshaw

Please help.

I had just finished upgrading my computer iBookG4 OSX 10.4.9. I was
writing an email, tried to send and it froze, then entourage quit.
When I tried to re-start entourage this error message came up saying
it could not access data.

Clicked Ok - which lead to a re-build screen. I first cancelled which
lead to this error meassage-

Compacting failed. A read/write error has occurred (-40)

I tried again to do a re-build and it couldnt so it tried a complex re-
biuld which also failed and the error message appeared again.

I have tried to first aid to repair disk but this option was not
available, so I repaired permissions instead, but this made no
difference.

Can anyone suggest what I should do. I need my email desperately and I
dont have a back-up, it's all just in entourage folders. Can anyone
help please.
Thanks Teenabean05
 
R

rosseroo

I am having an almost identical problem:

Bascially, the database for my Entourage (v. 10.1.4) has become
corrupt. This is what I've done so far:

Booted from CD and ran Disk First Aid. Then restarted from hard drive.

On launching Entourage, get the error: "Entourage cannot access your
data. To attempt to fix the problem,
rebuild your database."

Click "OK" and the rebuild database dialog window comes up. Try
"Typical Rebuild"

"Compacting the database" progress window appears. At record 5600 of
38846 the process stalls, get the error:
"Compacting failed. The end of the file was reached."

Click "OK" and get the window "Typical Rebuild failed, would you like
to try an Advanced Rebuild?"

Click "Yes". Progress window appears and the "Preparing the database"
cycle runs, and then into "Compacting the database." At some point in
that process, get the error: "Rebuilding failed. It is likely that
your database cannot be repaired."

Click "OK" and am back in Finder.

I was thinking of installing the Entourae 10.1.9 update, in case that
makes a difference, but I'm wondering if that might further screw
things up.

Another symptom is that I can't copy the database file itself to test
on another machine or anything.
 
R

rosseroo

I have what seems to be basically the same problem, the database for
my Entourage (v. 10.1.4) has become
corrupt. This is what I've done so far:

Booted from CD and ran Disk First Aid. Then restarted from hard drive.

On launching Entourage, get the error:
"Entourage cannot access your data. To attempt to fix the problem,
rebuild your database."

Click "OK" and the rebuild database dialog window comes up. Try
"Typical
Rebuild"

"Compacting the database" progress window appears. At record 5600 of
38846 the process stalls, get the error:
"Compacting failed. The end of the file was reached."

Click "OK" and get the window "Typical Rebuild failed, would you like
to
try an Advanced Rebuild?"

Click "Yes". Progress window appears and the "Preparing the database"
cycle runs, and then into "Compacting the database." At some point in
that process, get the error:
"Rebuilding failed. It is likely that your database cannot be
repaired."

Click "OK" and am back in Finder.

I was thinking of installing the Entourae 10.1.9 update, in case that
makes a difference, but I'm wondering if that might further screw
things up.

Another symptom is that I can't copy the database file itself to test
on another machine or anything.

Any help/suggestions would be appreciated!
 
J

Jolly Roger

I had just finished upgrading my computer iBookG4 OSX 10.4.9. I was
writing an email, tried to send and it froze, then entourage quit.
When I tried to re-start entourage this error message came up saying
it could not access data.

Clicked Ok - which lead to a re-build screen. I first cancelled which
lead to this error meassage-

Compacting failed. A read/write error has occurred (-40)
Click to expand...

Ouch. This error means the Entourage database file on disk is likely
corrupt. Not a good sign. : (
I tried again to do a re-build and it couldnt so it tried a complex re-
biuld which also failed and the error message appeared again.
Click to expand...

Bad news. I think that was your last resort in terms of what Entourage
itself can do to help you out of this jam.
I have tried to first aid to repair disk but this option was not
available, so I repaired permissions instead, but this made no
difference.
Click to expand...

You'll need to start up on a Mac OS X system CD and run Disk Utility
from the installer menu bar to Verify the startup drive. I would
*definitely* do that if I were you. There's a small chance you can use
Disk Utility's Repair function to recover from the error.
Can anyone suggest what I should do. I need my email desperately and I
dont have a back-up, it's all just in entourage folders. Can anyone
help please.
Click to expand...

As hard as I am sure this is for you to hear right now, if you don't
already have automated daily backups in place, now is the time to
invest in a solution that will ensure that this never happens again to
you. Do some research on backup utilities (we have plenty of good
discussions in the comp.sys.mac.app and comp.sys.mac.system news groups
about them (ignore the very latest thread "backup utilities" started by
"dorayme"). Personally, I think Retrospect, while being a complex tool,
is one of the best in terms of features, flexibility, and robustness,
even today - and I'm sure others here will agree with me on that.

It's a good idea to plan your backup strategy so that it is:

* automated and unattended - it should happen on a schedule without
your interaction
* flexible - so that you can backup any files or folders, on multiple
machines over the network if needed, to a hard drive, to tape, to an
FTP server, etc.
* incremental - so that only changed files are backed up each session
* snapshot-capable - so that multiple snapshots of changed files are
kept, allowing you to roll back changes to any point in time
* rotatable - so that you can keep a backup set off-site or in a
fireproof safe at all times, in case of a catastrophe

Then purchase and set up your backup utility, run some tests to make
sure you can restore your data, and stick with it religiously.
 
D

Diane Ross

"Compacting the database" progress window appears. At record 5600 of
38846 the process stalls, get the error:
"Compacting failed. The end of the file was reached."
Click to expand...

The file that has reached it's end is often the preferences file. Move the
'Microsoft' folder out of your local preferences folder and try again. If
this fails, end of file means the file is too corrupted to rebuild.
I was thinking of installing the Entourae 10.1.9 update, in case that
makes a difference, but I'm wondering if that might further screw
things up.
Click to expand...

Doubtful this will help.
Another symptom is that I can't copy the database file itself to test
on another machine or anything.
Click to expand...

Make sure you have enough room on your hard drive to make a copy.


--
Diane Ross, Microsoft Mac MVP
Entourage Help Page
<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/>
Entourage Help Blog
<http://blog.entourage.mvps.org/>
 
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