On or near 6/26/2003 8:51 AM, Robert A. Rosenberg at [EMAIL PROTECTED] observed:
> X-Mailer: Eudora Pro 6.0b24 PPC (MacOS 10.2.6) > I know that this is the Entourage List but I am hoping that you might > be able to help me with an OE 5.0.6 related problem. > > One of the members of my Mac User Group has come to me in my role as > "UG Guru and Trouble Shooter" and dumped his problem in my lap. > Basically while online and downloading his Email via OE 5.0.6 he had > a power failure. When he restarted, launching OE get a "Unable to > Find End of File" (or some similar message - I forget the actual > text) that indicated that one of the files was not the correct length > or was otherwise mangled. Upon my looking at his machine, I was able > to isolate the problem file to his Database file located in his > identity's mail folder of Documents/Microsoft User Data (by moving > that file out of the folder and starting OE). After saving a complete > copy of the folder (I returned the Database file there first of > course) so I would have an unaltered copy to use to restore to square > one after attempted corrective actions, I tried to get OE to fix the > problem itself by starting with Option held at launch time. This did > cause it to recover data but not correctly (it only recovered the > first 10 or so messages). The Message File (all 50Meg of it) seems to > be OK - It is the Database file it is bad (and gets recreated > incorrectly). > > My questions are as follows: > > 1) Will trying to do the rebuild with Entourage (from Office 98) > have any better luck than OE 5.0.6? > > 2) Is there another Key Combination that will cause OE to ignore > the contents of the Database File (and Database Cache) and just > rebuild it from scratch by reading the Message File? > > 3) Is there any utility I can use to read the Message File and > recover the messages in it? > > 4) How about recovering the Address book contents (which appear to > also "live" in the Database file? The version created by the Option > Triggered "Complex Rebuild" was useless and missing most of his > contacts just like the Mailboxes were missing almost all his mail. > > > Thank you for any assistance you can offer. It's been a long time since I worked with OE, but if I recall correctly, it is possible to FORCE a total rebuild of the index by actually deleting the files Database and Database Cache, and just triggering the rebuild with only the Messages file in the folder. (Obviously, you should keep your copy around in case this yields undesirable results.) Do not even bother to try using Entourage to rebuild your OE database. Different beasts. I think you may be out of luck as far as contacts go, if they reside in the corrupt Database File. Long ago, one of the developers posted a long message about using BBEdit to recover messages from the Messages file for Entourage; it _may_ work for OE. Here it is: The following post from David Cortright on Oct. 23rd details of a way to convert the messages file to a standard MBOX format which can then be imported into a clean Entourage identity. You won't be able to recover calendar, address book, Tasks or Notes data, but it should give you back your messages. -- Remo Del Bello <QUOTE> I spent several hours over the weekend constructing a really big MBOX file from an orphaned Messages file. To do this, you need a copy of BBEdit Lite and you need to know how to use Grep. Don't forget to operate on a copy, and do some cursory finds before Replace All. First, look for patterns like: [^\r]Received: from .*\r [^\t].*\rReceived: from .*\r And replace with: >From [EMAIL PROTECTED] Fri Jun 11 07:59:38 1999\r You'll need to account for messages that don't start with Received, so repeat with "From:", "Return-Path:", ... Also, you want to get rid of the garbage between messages, so search for: \r\r\r\r\r ^\**\r ^[0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9]? Now, skim the file looking for other garbage to clean up. Then, save out and do a File:Import:text file:MBOX. Now, set up a custom view and look for "Received: from" in the message body. You probably missed some messages. Drag this view to the desktop to creat an MBOX file, and clean it up. Then import it back in. It's a long, tedious process, but it works. </QUOTE> -- Remo Del Bello If you have to resort to this method, and don't own BBEdit, BBEdit Lite is no longer available. You may be able to find an old copy (which should work) on older MacAddict CDs or various user group BBS's. Instead, you can try using Tex-Edit-Plus, although I've found its regular expression searching to be a little flaky. -- To unsubscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To search the archives: <http://www.mail-archive.com/entourage-talk%40lists.boingo.com/> -- Microsoft MVP for Entourage/OE/Word (MVPs are volunteers) Allen Watson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Entourage FAQ site: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/> AppleScripts for Outlook Express and Entourage: <http://members.thinkaccess.net/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/Scripts/> Entourage Help Pages: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/> -- To unsubscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> archives: <http://www.mail-archive.com/entourage-talk%40lists.letterrip.com/> old-archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/entourage-talk%40lists.boingo.com/>
