On 5/1/07 3:28 PM, "Lorin Roche" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> I've been using Entourage since it first came out, as I recall. I used > Outlook before that and imported. So I have mail going back to 1998. I'm a > writer, and have many books out. It is really handy to be able to see emails > from 5, 7, 9 years ago, at a glance. > > Even with tens of thousands of emails, Entourage is totally stable. I am > wondering what a good, basic maintenance routine would be. What are the most > elegant solutions? Should I put all the old email in Filemaker Pro, for > example? > > I quit the Database Daemon every day and back up the MUD folder to an > external drive. Be sure to keep multiple copies of your backups. This way in case there is corruption, you can go back to an earlier backup. I use FolderOrgX to organize my backups. <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/database/backup.html#folderorg> > > Other than that, the only thing I do is remove all attachments, both > incoming and outgoing, and file them elsewhere. I do this as they come in. > Once every six months or so I hold down the option key and let Entourage > "compact" the database, which right now is 341 MB. I hadn't done this in a > long time, and just before compacting it was 700 MB almost. Do you use the scripts to remove attachments? They will save, remove and link the saved files to the message, so you can open the file directly from the message. <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/script/fav_scripts.html#favscript17> <http://scriptbuilders.net/files/saveattachments20041.0.0.html> Also remove your outgoing attachments with a rule. This is assuming your outgoing attachments are stored elsewhere on your computer. No need to have them duplicated and filling up your database. <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/rules/example/rule001.html> > > I really don't fuss with Entourage at all. It just works. The only thing I > suspect is that because there are so many thousands of old emails, it slows > down Project Center. > See this on Project Center and slowdowns in Entourage: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/troubleshoot/project_center.html> > > versions: I always have the latest OS and the latest build of Entourage. > Right now that is Entourage 11.3.3, OS 10.4.9, on a G5 Mac with 8 GB of RAM > and tons of hd space free. 8GB of RAM is very nice!!!! My only advice would be to archive your older mail to a separate Identity for searching and to keep your working Identity lean and lessen the chance of corruption in your older mail. Since you don't have a large database, I would do this on a yearly basis. Duplicate your current Identity. Name the copy Archive XXXX or some other suitable name. Then in your current Identity, create a custom view to show all mail older than xxx days. I always suggest at least a minimum of 90 days. Delete the older mails from the custom view. (When you do this yearly I suggest having some overlap of messages. Especially if you do this at the very beginning of the year. If not you'll be constantly switching to the old Identity to search for a recent email.) Now you have your current email available and your older mail safely stored in a separate Identity for easy searching. I don't suggest that you compact your database. Entourage will reuse that space with new messages. Think of this as using a partition for Entourage. One of the first things I do when I wipe a drive and re-install software is 1. Install OS 2. Install Office 3. Open Entourage and add files to make it at least 2GB. (can be any size) 4. Delete the excess mail that was added. Now I have created a 2GB partition in one contiguous space on my drive for my Entourage database. Even though your data is written to a database the database can be in bits around your drive. By establishing a size to your database in the beginning, Entourage will continue to reuse that space without writing it to other parts of your drive. -- Diane Ross, Microsoft Mac MVP Entourage Help Page <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/> One of the top five MS Entourage resources listed on the Entourage Blog. <http://blogs.msdn.com/entourage/> -- 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/>
