Ugh. Entourage Db repair drops local folders

[negreb]

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

I came back from vacation, started Entourage, and was informed that my Db was corrupt. I rebuilt it only to find that I had lost some calendar items and the last year's worth of my email -- stored in folders "on my computer."

I had been doing TimeMachine backups. Of course, they all seem to be corrupted, but they all seem to rebuild without the same local folders. My original Db was 7.72G, and the rebuilt one is about 4.5G (I realize you can't tell much about the corruption from the size differential).

Ack. What's going on? Can someone explain this? The more I've learned about Entourage as I've wrestled with this for the last four days, the more I yearn for Mail.

Thanks!

 

[Diane Ross]

Do you have an Identity that will open?

When you did the rebuild, how much free space did you have you your drive?

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://blog.entourage.mvps.org/2008/01/alternative_method_to_use_entourage_
and_time_machine.html>

Quit all Microsoft applications before backing up

<http://tinyurl.com/pykno3>

 

[negreb]

Do you have an Identity that will open?

When you did the rebuild, how much free space did you have you your drive?

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.

and_time_machine.html>

Quit all Microsoft applications before backing up

Thanks for the response.

If I had an identity that would open, what might I be able to do to try and recover the corrupted Db? I can always create a new Main ID and try to the corrupted one, if there's some advantage to that.

In terms of disk space, that should not have been a factor. 27G.

As for Time Machine, I get now that its just not a good idea, but it's the only backup I've got right now, so the hope is that I can rebuild a corrupted copy.

I don't get why the same folders are missing on multiple distinct backup copies. Under what circumstances will the Db Utility drop data?

Thanks!!!

 

[Diane Ross]

If I had an identity that would open, what might I be able to do to try and
recover the corrupted Db?

If you can open an Identity, you can export individual items. How to
manually move your data. (when import fails and/or you need to move to a new
Identity same version or revert to an older version)

I can always create a new Main ID and try to the
corrupted one, if there's some advantage to that.

Sorry, but this does not make sense.

In terms of disk space, that should not have been a factor. 27G.

27GB is not that much. You need at least 10% free for virtual memory. After
you exclude the 10%, how much do you have?

This article explains how you can rebuild when you have more.

As for Time Machine, I get now that its just not a good idea, but it's the
only backup I've got right now, so the hope is that I can rebuild a corrupted
copy.

Since you have multiple backup copies, this can allow you to open them to
salvage the data.

I don't get why the same folders are missing on multiple distinct backup
copies. Under what circumstances will the Db Utility drop data?

When there is corruption, sometimes these folder just go missing. When you
are seeing this type of behavior using the manual export of data then
creating a new Identity is the only way.