What when Entourage 2001's database exceeds 2GB?

F

Francois Grieu

Hi, I'm using Entourage 2001 unders MacOS 9.2.2 and my database
file will soon reach the 2GB landmark, unless I remove old mail.

Anyone has experience on if exceeding 2GB will cause a disaster?

Francois Grieu
 
F

Francois Grieu

I asked:
Hi, I'm using Entourage 2001 under MacOS 9.2.2 and my database
file will soon reach the 2GB landmark, unless I remove old mail.

Anyone has experience on if exceeding 2GB will cause a disaster?
Click to expand...

then found
http://www.entourage.mvps.org/database/size.html
"Entourage 2001 has a limit of 2 GB on both the Database and
Messages file. It does not handle this limit very gracefully,
so you may experience data loss if you hit it."

Of course it is my Messages file that is 1.9GB; time for cleanup !

Francois Grieu
 
A

Allen Watson

I asked:


then found
http://www.entourage.mvps.org/database/size.html
"Entourage 2001 has a limit of 2 GB on both the Database and
Messages file. It does not handle this limit very gracefully,
so you may experience data loss if you hit it."

Of course it is my Messages file that is 1.9GB; time for cleanup !

Francois Grieu
Click to expand...

You might want to try copying the message file (as a backup) and then
doing a rebuild on the database; this often will compact it. But yes,
it is definitely time to trim it down before disaster hits. If you hit
the limit the entire database may become unreadable. Remember, you can
drag entire folders to the desktop, and then delete them. You can
always drag them back in if you need something and, for that matter,
you could create a second Entourage identity and drag them into that.
 
F

Francois Grieu

Allen Watson said:
You might want to try (..) a rebuild on the database.
Click to expand...

Messages file is still only 7% shy of the fatal 2147483648
bytes limit.

You can drag entire folders to the desktop, and then
delete them.
Click to expand...

Yes, but see below.
You can always drag them back in if you need something
Click to expand...

In my experience, this often re-imports only part of a huge
folder, with no warning whatsoever. So far the exported file
turned out to be OK, and I was always able to ultimatly
re-import everything after restarting afresh, and allocating
200MB RAM to Entrourage.
Also, an issue is that some attributes of the messages are
lost, e.g. links to replies/original, which I value.

You could create a second Entourage identity
Click to expand...

Nice idea. Never used this feature, but seems easy:
- disable automatic network operations from MainID
- create an OldiesID,
- quit
- copy all files from MainID folder to OldiesID folder
- confirme OldiesID works fine, freeze it
- back to MainID, remove old messages
- compact
- re-enable automatic network operations
That should do it (not tried) without loosing any attribute.
Did I miss something?


Francois Grieu
 
M

Mickey Stevens

Nice idea. Never used this feature, but seems easy:
- disable automatic network operations from MainID
- create an OldiesID,
- quit
- copy all files from MainID folder to OldiesID folder
- confirme OldiesID works fine, freeze it
- back to MainID, remove old messages
- compact
- re-enable automatic network operations
That should do it (not tried) without loosing any attribute.
Did I miss something?
Click to expand...

That's the right idea. I would suggest that you simply go to
HD/Documents/Microsoft User Data/Office 2001 Identities, select your
identity that's nearing 2GB, and duplicate it (File > Duplicate). Rename
the copy so that it's called "OldID" or something like that. Then,
re-launch Entourage, and go to File > Switch Identity. Launch your OldID,
and make sure everything's still there. When you've done that, switch to
the MainID, and delete old material that you don't need immediate access to
any longer. Then do a Typical Rebuild (Compact) of the database.
 
F

Francois Grieu

Mickey Stevens said:
I would suggest that you simply go to
HD/Documents/Microsoft User Data/Office 2001 Identities, select your
identity that's nearing 2GB, and duplicate it (File > Duplicate). Rename
the copy so that it's called "OldID" or something like that. Then,
re-launch Entourage, and go to File > Switch Identity. Launch your OldID,
and make sure everything's still there. When you've done that, switch to
the MainID, and delete old material that you don't need immediate access to
any longer. Then do a Typical Rebuild (Compact) of the database.
Click to expand...

Thanks, that worked as expected, and I'm back to safer file sizes.
I first disabled scheduled tasks, so that opening the "OldID"
identity would NOT read mail, which would go against the objective
of keeping "OldID" as a backup, and new mail in the default Identity.

Francois Grieu
 
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