Need help finding a 3rd party database rebuild tool

[stevertr]

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: Intel
Email Client: pop

OK....I'll do the short version for you

Laptop>Office 2004>Crashes>Rebuild Database>Crashes again the ext day>rebuild database again<same problem.

Go to TM>Pull in a three day old database>wants a rebuild>rebuild>crashes again

Go to my external where I have a crisp clean, 1 month old actual drag and drop full copy of my database>import that>Entourage again wants a rebuild>did that> crashes again

Take my MacMini out of the box, which had been essentially unused>load on my brand new copy of Office 2008>Bring in the most recent precrash database>Upgrading identity and messages>works fine for a day?crashes and wants a rebuild. Note this is on a totally separate computer so there is obviously an issue of a message somewhere corrupting the databases regardless of computer.

Tried doing an export, this fails due to one or more corrupted messages.

Tried dragging individual folders onto the desktop to form mailbox folders, but those are clearly incomplete.

The database is large (7g or so), and contains important information.

Now I'm at a loss. I can get to the messages on my laptop, and turned off office notifications for now (living on borrowed time), and have multiple back up copies so it's not yet a "disaster" but it's getting there.

No clue what to do next. Are there any third party database repair tools that might work better than the built in one?

Regards

Steve

 

[Steven Thompson]

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: Intel
Email Client: pop

OK....I'll do the short version for you

Laptop>Office 2004>Crashes>Rebuild Database>Crashes again the ext day>rebuild
database again<same problem.

Go to TM>Pull in a three day old database>wants a rebuild>rebuild>crashes
again

Go to my external where I have a crisp clean, 1 month old actual drag and drop
full copy of my database>import that>Entourage again wants a rebuild>did that>
crashes again

Take my MacMini out of the box, which had been essentially unused>load on my
brand new copy of Office 2008>Bring in the most recent precrash
database>Upgrading identity and messages>works fine for a day?crashes and
wants a rebuild. Note this is on a totally separate computer so there is
obviously an issue of a message somewhere corrupting the databases regardless
of computer.

Tried doing an export, this fails due to one or more corrupted messages.

Tried dragging individual folders onto the desktop to form mailbox folders,
but those are clearly incomplete.

The database is large (7g or so), and contains important information.

Now I'm at a loss. I can get to the messages on my laptop, and turned off
office notifications for now (living on borrowed time), and have multiple back
up copies so it's not yet a "disaster" but it's getting there.

No clue what to do next. Are there any third party database repair tools that
might work better than the built in one?

Regards

Steve

Wow, you have some serious problems here! OK, here is what I would do...

1.) Zip up your good database; Everything under "~/Documents/Microsoft User
Data/Office 2008 Identities/Main Identity/" and Move the Zip file to the
Desktop. Delete everything under the "Main Identity" directory. Then set up
a fresh Identity but don't import anything or download messages from the
server. Just start fresh and see how far that gets you.

If your database is still getting clobbered after that, you may wish to
double check you POP settings, try checking or un-checking the use of SSL.
It may just be a setting.

If that fixes the problem then you can start to import parts of your
database one by one until you hit a snag then just back up a little bit and
you know you've hit the problem.


2.) As a last resort I would uninstall your version of Office and download
the trial version from here:
http://www.microsoft.com/mac/products/Office2008/trial-download.mspx and try
to rebuild the database from that version of Office.

If that works, the real version of Office you have is clobbered and due for
a refund / replacement.

If that doesn't work, then I can only surmise that the way you computer is
set up is botched somehow. Don't know how, but somehow. Something must be
interfering with your Office or OS installation.

--
Sincerely,

Steve Thompson
Using a 24" Aluminum iMac. May, 2009 (Leopard 10.5.7)
3.06GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 8GB 1066 MHz DDR3
http://www.steven-thompson.com

 

[Diane Ross]

Go to TM>Pull in a three day old database>wants a rebuild>rebuild>crashes
again

Follow the steps here to eliminate the source of your problems.

Testing in a new User will quickly tell you if the problem is system wide or
if it¹s your User¹s folder that contains the problem. If the problem goes
away in a new blank Identity then you need to test the problem Identity in
the new User. See "Troubleshooting Entourage in a New User Account"

<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/troubleshoot/test_new_user.html>

Your next step....

Troubleshooting Your User Account for a Problem

<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/troubleshoot/test_user.html>


Using Time Machine to backup Entourage basics:

It's advised by the developers not to let Time Machine backup your Entourage
database. If the database is copied while being used, the backup could be
corrupt. You can set the Time Machine to exclude the Microsoft User Data
folder and create an iCal event to copy it over at night while not in use so
you get one backup daily in Time Machine.

<http://tinyurl.com/aba7tl>

Quit all Microsoft applications before backing up

Tried doing an export, this fails due to one or more corrupted messages.

This indicates corruption

Tried dragging individual folders onto the desktop to form mailbox folders,
but those are clearly incomplete.

Again, this indicates corruption

The database is large (7g or so), and contains important information.

The larger the hard drive you use to rebuild, the more successful you will
be. I keep 500GB free to rebuild my clients databases. This article
explains using a large drive.

Rebuilding a damaged database that exceeded size limit

<http://tinyurl.com/4s6qv3>

Good luck!