Its all gone!

[parker.quink]

Folks,

I searched this group, and tried many fixes, but all is still lost.

The basics: OS 10.3.9, Entourage 2004 version 11.2.5

What happened: to resolve another problem I ran a third party cache
cleaner, [tiger cache cleaner], ran all the maintainence scripts,
cleaned the logs, and did a medium clean of the caches. All good.
Except that all entourage (5yrs of email and address book) is gone,
gone, gone. And its not in the trash.

What I have tried: restarting Entourage, switching identities [same
deal], and trying to manually import my Micro Usr Fldr from by backup
external drive [this is just a copy, not an export], and also tried
dropping an alias of the copied MUF to my User folder, but Entourage
won't open it.

Suggestions / explainations are welcomed

 

[William Smith]

Folks,

I searched this group, and tried many fixes, but all is still lost.

The basics: OS 10.3.9, Entourage 2004 version 11.2.5

What happened: to resolve another problem I ran a third party cache
cleaner, [tiger cache cleaner], ran all the maintainence scripts,
cleaned the logs, and did a medium clean of the caches. All good.
Except that all entourage (5yrs of email and address book) is gone,
gone, gone. And its not in the trash.

What I have tried: restarting Entourage, switching identities [same
deal], and trying to manually import my Micro Usr Fldr from by backup
external drive [this is just a copy, not an export], and also tried
dropping an alias of the copied MUF to my User folder, but Entourage
won't open it.

Suggestions / explainations are welcomed

How far can you follow this path on your computer?

<your hard drive> --> /Users/<your user name>/Documents/Microsoft User
Data/Office 2004 Identities/<your identity name>/Database

If you have five years worth of messages then your Database file should
be one of the largest files on your computer. Use the Finder's File -->
Find... command (Command + f) to search for files that are larger than
500 MB.

Hope this helps! bill

 

[Diane Ross]

I searched this group, and tried many fixes, but all is still lost.

The basics: OS 10.3.9, Entourage 2004 version 11.2.5

What happened: to resolve another problem I ran a third party cache
cleaner, [tiger cache cleaner], ran all the maintainence scripts,
cleaned the logs, and did a medium clean of the caches. All good.
Except that all entourage (5yrs of email and address book) is gone,
gone, gone. And its not in the trash.

What I have tried: restarting Entourage, switching identities [same
deal], and trying to manually import my Micro Usr Fldr from by backup
external drive [this is just a copy, not an export], and also tried
dropping an alias of the copied MUF to my User folder, but Entourage
won't open it.

Suggestions / explainations are welcomed

Try looking for invisible files. Search for "Microsoft User Data" or "Main
Identity" (your identity name if you changed it from Main) At the root
level of the hard drive, is a hidden folder called "lost+found". It's
possible you will find the file there.

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

 

[parker.quink]

Thanks for your response!

What I did to resolve the problem was copy my old database copy file
back into the MUD folder. [I still don't know where the old database
went...perhaps my virus scan auto-deleted it after finding something
it didn't like, and Entourage spawned a new blank one in its place. Who
knows?] Thankfully I seem to have my adressbook back. And the first
thing I'll do is export my contacts to a safe, undisclosed location.
Then many, many hours of updating ...

Thant's enough drama for now. Thanks for being there.

 

[parker.quink]

Thank you very much for this hint also!

And thanks for being there.

[i was able to reconsititute most of my material by pasting in an old
copy of my database, and tediously updating. Tedium! What a welcome
relief!!]

 

[Diane Ross]

perhaps my virus scan auto-deleted it after finding something
it didn't like, and Entourage spawned a new blank one in its place.

I don't use a virus program, but I understand that if an anti-virus program
has detected a virus stored in the database (probably in an infected email)
it can quarantine the database, hiding it from the system. Check any AV
products you are running and, if necessary, exclude the Microsoft User Data
folder from their scans.

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

 

[William Smith]

I don't use a virus program, but I understand that if an anti-virus program
has detected a virus stored in the database (probably in an infected email)
it can quarantine the database, hiding it from the system. Check any AV
products you are running and, if necessary, exclude the Microsoft User Data
folder from their scans.

And if your database has been quarantined it may still be on your
computer in our quarantined files folder. Your AV software should tell
you the path.

Good luck! bill