HELP!!! Horribly corrupt Entourage X database???

W

Will Mulloy

Hi,

I must start by apologizing if I seem edgy, but I am horribly distraught. I
was viewing todays new email, clicked on a message, and Entourage 10.1.1
displayed the message "Mail error. The action could not be completed." or
something similar.

I had to force quit the program, then I immediately made a backup of my
identity folder to an external drive. I held down option and chose to do a
Typical Rebuild. It went through the compacting stage, then quit, telling me
the database could not be rebuilt because there was not enough free space to
create the new files. My fault. My database weighs in at 3.66 GB (I know
that's getting near Entourage's limit, but I haven't received any warnings).

I made some free space, and now have 9.07 or so GB free. I ran another
typical rebuild only to wait for a long time to be told there still was not
enough disk space. Even if I duplicated the files, I would still have almost
2GB free. Is it REALLY not enough space? I could make more, if you think it
would help. I just have a hard time believing that more than twice the size
of the current database is insufficient for a rebuild.

It appears to be corrupt enough that starting Entourage freezes it, and it
must be Force Quit, which itself is a struggle. The message list and preview
pane are all filled with Mac OS X "pinstriping" My folders, however, are
clearly visible in the folder list.

Am I completely out of luck? I have had to rebuild my database more than I'd
like to admit. Any ideas what I can do to rescue my messages?

I never have run an advanced rebuild, because the program says to only do
that if a typical rebuild does not fix the problem, and a typical always
has, until Entourage decides to misbehave a few weeks down the road. The
last time I had to do this was only the 10th of the month......

My patience with an otherwise great program is wearing incredibly thin.

If I ever do manage to get my database accessible, is there any wisdom in
dragging all my folders to the Desktop, then making a new identity and
re-importing my data?

I would rather not switch programs, but Entourage's lack of reliability for
me is making me incredibly leery, and nervous that it could crash at any
second.

Thank you for any assistance in helping me out of this!

-William Mulloy
 
P

Paul Berkowitz

I never have run an advanced rebuild, because the program says to only do
that if a typical rebuild does not fix the problem, and a typical always
has, until Entourage decides to misbehave a few weeks down the road. The
last time I had to do this was only the 10th of the month......
Click to expand...

But a Typical hasn't. Typical Rebuilds don't fix serious corruption - mostly
just items out of order in lists and that sort of thing. Try an Advanced
Rebuild and see if that works. All you lose with Advanced are links and
caches from news and IMAP downloads, which you can simply download again.

--
Paul Berkowitz
MVP Entourage
Entourage FAQ Page: http://www.entourage.mvps.org/toc.html

Please "Reply To Newsgroup" to reply to this message. Emails will be
ignored.

PLEASE always state which version of Entourage you are using - 2001 or X.
It's often impossible to answer your questions otherwise.
 
W

Will Mulloy

Hi,

Thanks for the suggestion. I found, for your information, that Entourage
gave the "Not enough disk space" error when doing the typical rebuild in the
"compacting" stage at something like 122xxx of 124684. I saw your post, and
did an Advanced Rebuild. It went through "Preparing", then "Compacting",
taking its time, so I went to bed and left it running, hoping that it
wouldn't finish with the same error.

To my amazement, what greeted me the next morning was a message that it had
been successfully rebuilt and the old files could be trashed. The folder
that came up (my ebay folder, as it turns out) came up quickly and
completely. Having to go to work, I took this to mean it was successful and
closed Entourage, extremely happy to think that my database was functional
when I next checked email.

However, when I got home, here's what happened:

I opened Entourage, and the same folder came up. I clicked among the
messages, and they seemed to come up fine. I then clicked on my Inbox. At
that point, the same weirdness happened. Some messages showed up, with parts
of the windows filled with Mac OS X "horizontal pinstriping". There also
seemed to be disk activity, though my internal drive is fairly quiet.

Then I noticed that Entourage seemed to be at least partially responsive. I
could drag my inbox to the desktop, for example, to make a .mbox file. I
then assumed that some corruption still existed, so my next thought was to
make a new identity as a test, and see if I could re-import my inbox .mbox
file. I chose "Switch Identity...", and got the usual "Are you sure?"
Box...minus any text. There were two unlabeled buttons and a check box with
no text. Neither of the buttons were responsive, so I had to force quit it.

As I was pondering what to do now, I decided to open Entourage again. And
now everything came up, and I can look at anything I wish, with normal
behavior. I don't know why it would act strangely after the advanced
rebuild, then start to work normally after being force quit. I am thrilled
that it's working, but as you can imagine, I don't have much faith that it
will continue to do so, and I like Entourage so much, it pains me greatly to
say it.

I do not believe the problem is with the Entourage program or a preference
file, because my database exhibited the same behavior when moved to my
ibook.

Any suggestions?

Thanks,
-Will
 
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