Leopard and Entourage...all was lost

[ThanatosId]

I installed Leopard and all looked great...but then...Entourage was in a new format, and all of the emails that I had put into their own business file were missing!! I have looked through the system using both spotlight and digging in old folders. It is gone. Do I chalk this up as lesson learned for backing up emails, or has this happened to others (and is there a solution).

Please help.

The irony...I upgraded to use Time Machine so I wouldn't lose my important email.

 

[walnuts]

What kind of e-mail was it? (imap, exchange, etc)? Were these e-mails that you had taken off of the server and saved only on your local computer? If not, couldn't you just restore your database from the server?

As for time machine and entourage, I found it to be a less than ideal solution. Entourage stores all of your data (calendar, e-mails, etc.) in one huge database file (in my case 3 GB!). So, each time time machine makes a backup, it doesn't simply back up your new e-mails, it makes a fresh copy of your database. 3gb * (24 hours + 30 days...) = way too much space. I had to force time machine to exclude it.

 

[Dimwhit]

As for time machine and entourage, I found it to be a less than ideal solution. Entourage stores all of your data (calendar, e-mails, etc.) in one huge database file (in my case 3 GB!). So, each time time machine makes a backup, it doesn't simply back up your new e-mails, it makes a fresh copy of your database. 3gb * (24 hours + 30 days...) = way too much space. I had to force time machine to exclude it.

Didn't Apple change how Mail stored messages for this very reason? I think they used to be in one long file, now they're individual files. Might be remembering wrong, but it definitely affects how TM works with email.

 

[robbieduncan]

Didn't Apple change how Mail stored messages for this very reason? I think they used to be in one long file, now they're individual files. Might be remembering wrong, but it definitely affects how TM works with email.

Actually they changed it in Tiger to work with Spotlight. Spotlight can only search individual files. MS went with a half-arsed solutiont. Entourage writes a file to allow Spotlight to index AND uses it's giant monolithic file for everything else!

 

[Dimwhit]

Actually they changed it in Tiger to work with Spotlight. Spotlight can only search individual files. MS went with a half-arsed solutiont. Entourage writes a file to allow Spotlight to index AND uses it's giant monolithic file for everything else!

Ah. Knew it was changed to accommodate some feature or other of theirs.

 

[naftalim]

I guess if you did not back up, there might be a problem. However, there are 2 things you should try.

See if you can find your Identity file.

http://www.entourage.mvps.org/database/index.html#db1

http://www.entourage.mvps.org/get_started/tip009.html

http://www.entourage.mvps.org/database/index.html

If you have found that, and all is working, great. If not, try to rebuild the database

http://www.entourage.mvps.org/database/rebuild.html


I had a backup when I installed Leopard on a friends computer but her email and contacts were gone. I did the above and it was all there.

Hope this helps. I don't use Entourage

I installed Leopard and all looked great...but then...Entourage was in a new format, and all of the emails that I had put into their own business file were missing!! I have looked through the system using both spotlight and digging in old folders. It is gone. Do I chalk this up as lesson learned for backing up emails, or has this happened to others (and is there a solution).

Please help.

The irony...I upgraded to use Time Machine so I wouldn't lose my important email.