Reinstalling Entourage?

[Rick O'Shey]

I may need to "nuke 'n' pave" my drive. Having never done it, I'm not sure
what to expect after the OS is reinstalled and I retrieve my files from a
backup. (I'm not yet even clear which files I'll need to back up.)

Once the system reinstallation is completed, how do I go about restoring
Entourage (and all of my emails) to its current state?

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

I may need to "nuke 'n' pave" my drive. Having never done it, I'm not sure
what to expect after the OS is reinstalled and I retrieve my files from a
backup. (I'm not yet even clear which files I'll need to back up.)

Well the critical ones are the Microsoft User Data folder from your user
account.
Make sure you quit all Office applications and that the daemon is not
running before you back it up (otherwise these apps tap into the
database and might corrupt the backup).
The easy way is to launch the Activity Monitor from
/Applications/Utilities and to use it to find and quit all applications
with Microsoft in the name, plus My Day and the database daemon. Make
really really sure the daemon is not running.

Once the system reinstallation is completed, how do I go about restoring
Entourage (and all of my emails) to its current state?

You simply put that folder back in place.

Corentin

 

[Rick O'Shey]

Well the critical ones are the Microsoft User Data folder from your user
account.

I assume you have MS Office in mind (Word, PP, Excel, and Entourage); but
Entourage _itself_ requires only ~/Documents/Microsoft User Data/Office 2008
Identities/Main Identity, correct?

Make sure you quit all Office applications and that the daemon is not
running before you back it up (otherwise these apps tap into the
database and might corrupt the backup).

Does that suggest that my "normal" Time Machine and/or SuperDuper! backups
may contain corrupted copies of ~/Documents/Microsoft User Data/Office 2008
Identities/Main Identity/Database?

 

[Rick O'Shey]

Well the critical ones are the Microsoft User Data folder from your user
account.

Will I need to reinstall Office?

 

[Diane Ross]

I assume you have MS Office in mind (Word, PP, Excel, and Entourage); but
Entourage _itself_ requires only ~/Documents/Microsoft User Data/Office 2008
Identities/Main Identity, correct?

If you have scripts you'll need those too.

Does that suggest that my "normal" Time Machine and/or SuperDuper! backups
may contain corrupted copies of ~/Documents/Microsoft User Data/Office 2008
Identities/Main Identity/Database?

Most likely. Some users say they can use Time Machine backups, but I can
tell you from experience that when I recover a Time Machine backup copy of
the database it's full of crap.

Will I need to reinstall Office?

If you're nuking your drive, I would install as much as possible as new. You
don't want to bring over old corrupted files.

 

[Rick O'Shey]

If you have scripts you'll need those too.

Most likely. Some users say they can use Time Machine backups, but I can
tell you from experience that when I recover a Time Machine backup copy of
the database it's full of crap.

I've been taking care to back up my data, going out of my way to strike a
balance between the resource demands of Entourage's monolithic database
design and my need to maintain reasonably timely backups in case of failure,
and it now appears that those efforts have been and are "most likely" in
vain.

(<grumbling to himself>: My God. A database that consumes significant
resources and which is subject to all-your-eggs-in-one-basket data
catastrophes, yet is designed to become "full of crap" when the user
attempts to save backup copies? Rube Goldberg could've done a better job.)

If you're nuking your drive, I would install as much as possible as new. You
don't want to bring over old corrupted files.

Good general advice...I was just wondering if in this case it was required,
desired, or even counterproductive (for example: if somehow a "fresh"
installation would not "like" the "old" data).

 

[Diane Ross]

Good general advice...I was just wondering if in this case it was required,
desired, or even counterproductive (for example: if somehow a "fresh"
installation would not "like" the "old" data).

Nope, if the data is good that's all that counts.

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

(<grumbling to himself>: My God. A database that consumes significant
resources and which is subject to all-your-eggs-in-one-basket data
catastrophes, yet is designed to become "full of crap" when the user
attempts to save backup copies? Rube Goldberg could've done a better job.)

FYI, I read that the MacBU is going to a Time Machine compatible setup
in the next version of Office.

Corentin

 

[Kerry]

FYI, I read that the MacBU is going to a Time Machine compatible setup
in the next version of Office.

Corentin

--
--- Office:Mac MVP http://www.cortig.net/wordpress/ ---
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Well, that's good Corentin. How long have we had Time Machine - at
least two years. Anyway, that'll get rid of that debate. Who knows,
maybe I won't feel I need all these different backups but I'll
probably maintain them as none of this interferes with my work -
everything really starts happening at 3 am but it would be nice to
know that a Time Machine backup is considered compatible in
Entourage . I've used them and they've worked fine for me but I know
many aren't comfortable with this and it is true if anything is
sitting in memory or cache and it hasn't been written to the file
it'll be corrupt. But at least I know all the data is backed up in the
Apple apps and in my various other backup systems.

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

Well, that's good Corentin. How long have we had Time Machine - at
least two years. Anyway, that'll get rid of that debate. Who knows,

Hey, you're preaching to the choir.
I have been advocating for that for ever!
:->

Corentin

 

[Rick O'Shey]

FYI, I read that the MacBU is going to a Time Machine compatible setup
in the next version of Office.

Corentin

Well, I think I'm just about done repeatedly paying MS premium prices for
beta-quality software while it (supposedly) tries to "get it right."