ALL ENTOURAGE WIPED what can be done?

a bientot

Has anyone heard of material being retrieved that had removed itself from Entourage.....
In other words I switched on my machine to find that all records of my e-mails in and out had disappeared (including many with accompanying attachments) and entourage 2001 behaved as though I had just installed it on the first day...some six years ago...... welcome to entourage etc

The other documents on the desktop and in my documents folders (word etc) were also gone.....

It's as though I have a brand new e mac..........

Can anyone give me hope?

nialler

Bientot

First off this sounds as if it has created a new account somehow, each account on the machine has it's own preferences, documents folder, desktop folder within the Users folder on the top level of Macintosh HD (assuming you haven't renamed the Disk).

How many accounts on the mac, has it been set to auto-login to another account so you didn't notice? Look under login options in system prefs and tell me what it says.


Niall

<snip>

a bientot

I've tried this already but as I only use one account (I am the only user) there is no sign of anything.......

I am keeping away from my Mac at present as the only advice I have had is not to attempt to do anything.....

I will have another look.....

Thanks for your speedy response....

nialler

Bientot

The only time I've EVER seen or heard of this happening is when a dodgy beta of Office 2004 for Mac was announced which wiped your home directory that was 2003 a long long time ago haven't heard the likes since. If you'd like me to have a look at it for you I can.


Niall

<snip>

muggyog

Thats not the question Niall asked. You may THINK there is only one account, you need to confirm this by (a) going to Accounts in the System preferences or/and (b) go to the Users folder on your startup drive. What exact version of Entourage have you got ?

babypink

ok, i want to make the following crystal clear. There is to be no advertising on the board. No - "If you'd like me to have a look at it for you I can." followed by business web-link. The board is about discussion and sorting out problems posters may have, not getting free publicity. I have no problem supporting a startup, i'll probably give my custom, but i'm not prepared to have the board turned into a free-ads board.

I'm going to add www.techeads.ie to the reference sticky at the top of the forum.

nialler

Ok babypink it will not happen again, so at what point do you advise people to go seek a professional?

440Hz

nialler wrote: »

so at what point do you advise people to go seek a professional?

nialler, there are many highly experienced and knowledgeable posters on this particular forum who regularly help posters here. Some of these would be professionals in this field, consequently people regularly receive professional help on here. Often if a poster's issue cannot be sorted on the board, some of these aforementioned experts will recommend a professional opinion and often make a suggestion of where to go.

They do not advertise their own services while doing this. Your website has been added to the resources list in the sticky on the main forum page. People can find your business there, and perhaps it will be suggested by posters as potential solutions for other users.

Oriel

nialler wrote: »

Ok babypink it will not happen again, so at what point do you advise people to go seek a professional?

Possibly when you follow the instruction of people on here and destroy any hope you have of getting your original data back.
Don't ask people here. Go to an Apple support forum and find out where the data is stored, make a back up of that and then seek to resolve the issue.

babypink

Oriel wrote: »

Possibly when you follow the instruction of people on here and destroy any hope you have of getting your original data back.
Don't ask people here. Go to an Apple support forum and find out where the data is stored, make a back up of that and then seek to resolve the issue.

yet you somehow seem drawn to this place?!

@nialler:

When dealing with a hardware issue, and the machine is under warranty, i would advise professional help immediately. I'd also insist that the professional be Apple Certified, otherwise the warranty is voided. When dealing with non-warranty machines, i would advise professional help when people have stepped out of their comfort zone, for some that would be anything more than a RAM upgrade while for others it's a non-issue.

Dealing with software issues, often professional help is not necessary as boards like this, and others(Apple support, M$ support, et al.), do a great job of coming to a collective conclusion about fault and remedy. I do accept that not always can a conclusion be reached and in those situations professional help is definitely warranted.

I agree with 400Hz and that often posters here are bona-fide experts and do not solicit business for themselves. Like I posted earlier, I'm delighted to support companies here - if someone suggests where to go for a repair or service, all the better. I'm delighted to put you down as a repair option, I do have a problem with pushing your own business on a board thats not intended to be for commercial in nature. I do wish you the best of luck in your venture!!

/OT

back on topic please

Oriel

I received an "infraction" for my above comment.

"Reason: Insulted Other Member(s)

---

insulting the intelligence, integrity and intentions of fellow posters is a one-way ticket to an infraction.

---

"

I replied to babypink:

"This does not deserve an infraction at all.
N00bs will point advice about an application they have ever used.
I will defend my comment. Take your personal vendetta elsewhere."

OP, this is a specialised Microsoft question. Seek specific, application-related advice from people who know Entourage inside out. You run the risk of overwriting important your data if you follow advice from the "public" on here.

This is the point I was trying to make.
babypink, please retract your infraction.
And please explain if you don't.
I have tried to help the OP entirely, and have done nothing else.
If I acted the bollocks then I would admit to it, but I've been good.

Oriel

babypink wrote:

the charter is quite clear

Insulting or provoking other users is not smart or witty, and will not be tolerated here.

You are, of course, free to defend your comment.

I did not insult, nor prevoke with intent, clearly.

Oriel wrote: »

Possibly when you follow the instruction of people on here

Note, I said "possibly". This was not a dig at the Mac forum, purely advice that you should seek professional advice before trying any advice from this forum.

440Hz

I would like to make a point here, that it is generally frowned upon on boards.ie to publish the contents of Private Messaging communications unless a) It is your own personal content which you are quoting or b) you have received the prior consent of the the other party to post the details of the private communications.

I would suggest editing the above posts.

Also, this is not feedback. Back on topic please.

Oriel

440Hz wrote: »

Back on topic please. Please continue this discussion elsewhere if you care to.

OP, http://www.microsoft.com/mac/help.mspx

Vexorg

Oriel

Will you never learn? permnent ban from the mac forum.

Vex

nialler

As stated guys it will not happen again, I only discovered yestereday there was a mac forum on here after being a long time poster in the motor section, obviously I didn't read the charter and will adhere to the rules in the future.

/case closed.

440Hz

nialler, it's ok. There were other matters going on here also. We appreciate you expertise here and are very happy to have you on board here. Sorry things didn't get off to the best of starts but welcome to the forum, Im sure you will fit right in.

whiterebel

a bientot wrote: »

Has anyone heard of material being retrieved that had removed itself from Entourage.....
In other words I switched on my machine to find that all records of my e-mails in and out had disappeared (including many with accompanying attachments) and entourage 2001 behaved as though I had just installed it on the first day...some six years ago...... welcome to entourage etc

The other documents on the desktop and in my documents folders (word etc) were also gone.....

It's as though I have a brand new e mac..........

Can anyone give me hope?

Is the Microsoft User data folder gone from Documents folder as well?
if so, thats why Entourage is behaving as if it starting for the first time.
Do a search for that folder name in spotlight and see if you can find more than one. There will be one in the Documents folder as you have already started up Entourage again. Look for a second one. Sorry to ask, but have you back up? The Microsoft User data folder is the one to copy to make a back up.

nialler

Rebel, using spotlight will only allow you to see files that you have permission to see and judging by what beintot is describing (blank desktop etc) it sounds like there has been a completely new account created. I have 4 accounts on this mac and can only spotlight search and view what I have permissions access to view. Now if he was to go into the command line and sudo in as root then he can search to his heart's content and establish if the files are there.

Also check the trash you may have accidentally hit command (apple) delete and sent it to the trash.

BUT as stated, go into the system preferences pane under the Blue apple logo on the top right, click on the accounts symbol 4 rows down, there will definitely give you a clue if there's a second account that was set to auto login (probably somebody messing with your head).

Niall

rymus

a bientot wrote: »

Can anyone give me hope?

Having dealt with apple support a few times, I can only echo the sound advice above. I've googled and requested help on forums only to be kept waiting. Ring apple support and get an answer to your problem much quicker rather than faffing around and potentially losing important data.

Also, while I realise this is a vaguely political addition to the above, I fail to see why Oriel's post warranted a ban. In fairness, he was just giving advice.

Breezer

rymus wrote: »

Having dealt with apple support a few times, I can only echo the sound advice above. I've googled and requested help on forums only to be kept waiting. Ring apple support and get an answer to your problem much quicker rather than faffing around and potentially losing important data.

Surely Microsoft support would be more appropriate?

whiterebel

Breezer wrote: »

Surely Microsoft support would be more appropriate?

All his desktop and documents have been wiped, not just the MUD folder. Would be an Apple call, but I can tell you know it would be a waste of time. This did happen to me once before for no apparent reason a few yars ago - It was just like I had started the machine for the first time. Fortunately i had backed up.

Something that might help the OP is something like Data rescue from Prosoft which can find deleted files, but its pricey.

440Hz

rymus wrote: »

Also, while I realise this is a vaguely political addition to the above, I fail to see why Oriel's post warranted a ban. In fairness, he was just giving advice.

As an ex-mod I am surprised that you would choose to question babypink and Vex's call in a thread.

Oriel was not banned for his post. He was infracted (by babypink) for his post. He was banned for his subsequent reaction to that post, by an admin, something which I would not choose to question in a thread. This isn't the place for this discussion, the thread has returned to topic and if you wish to query this matter please do so elsewhere.

Regards.

nialler

whiterebel wrote: »

All his desktop and documents have been wiped, not just the MUD folder. Would be an Apple call, but I can tell you know it would be a waste of time. This did happen to me once before for no apparent reason a few yars ago - It was just like I had started the machine for the first time. Fortunately i had backed up.

Something that might help the OP is something like Data rescue from Prosoft which can find deleted files, but its pricey.

After speaking with the OP last night and a bit of unix geekery we established that his original home folder is still there and I'll be looking at it today to get things back to where they were.

So hopefully everything will be back to normal by this afternoon.

N

whiterebel

Good stuff.

rymus

440Hz wrote: »

Oriel was not banned for his post. He was infracted (by babypink) for his post.

That was my point... As an ex-mod, I was surprised that his post was taken up as being insulting or abusive to another user. It was far from that.

Anyway, re the whole Microsoft or apple support. I'm sure given that it's a microsoft product running on an apple OS on apple hardware that the apple tech support would be able to offer some assistance. In all my dealings with them (which included a call or two about Adobe products) I was never fobbed off to another companies tech support. Quite the opposite in fact; I find them quite eager to resolve the problem. Maybe only so they can hit their targets for the day? Who cares if it gets the problem solved?

nialler

The last time I called apple support was 4 or closer to 5 years ago when I got my G5 and needed to install the airport card in it.

Guy on the phone hadn't a clue so I figured it out and talked him through it in case he got another call, tis a bit back to front that one.

Now the best support call/ichat I ever made was to Alsoft (makers of Disk Warrior) where myself under Marc's instruction got hands dirty in disc editing under unix and managed to resurrect an extremely corrupt disc, 2 hours on ichat and he asked if Alsoft could use the details for their support database for future reference.

Niall

whiterebel

Apple Tech Support staff were told in no uncertain terms NOT to try and assist with hardware installations - It makes sense, we couldn't see what they were doing. You can't suddenly decide one person is competent and the other shouldn't be let loose with a sweeping brush.

Same for MS or Adobe support, we weren't expected to know anything apart from install launch and recover. How to back up was something we could help with, but after that go to MS. MS were charging £50 a case at that stage so Apple were in no rush to help for free. Also the sccond corollary to Murphys law states:
"If Apple tech Support try, out of the goodness of their hearts, to assist a customer with a product that is not thine own, it will go t*ts up, and the next call will be to Customer Services, or their manager"

One of my first ever calls was 45 minutes long, and I got a roasting for it. OS9, Photoshop and Quark crashing consistently. I knew a fair bit about Macs anyway, so started down the usual trail - start up with OS9 extensions only, etc etc. If only I had known that Quark and Photoshop didn't actually install extensions...........:rolleyes: It turned out to be a well known problem, that eitherr Quark or Adobe would have known how to solve quickly. Bollocking for me, frustrated customer on to me for 45 minutes to eventually be told to go where he should have been sent in the first place.

And DON'T get me started on BT dialup connections.............:D

nialler

lol yep been there done that. My best one was two of my colleagues (this is NOT a lie) both looking at one screen, going yeah there's definitely something wrong with that, really bad, think that monitor is dead, NIALL I think my monitor is dead, so up the office I walk stand behind both of them as they gaze into the blank black screen (old 20" Radius CRT full of fingerprints and pen marks) as they sat gazing at their reflections moving on the screen, I then leaned over and hit the power button to turn it on, red faced? You bet they were.

As for Quark crashing, do bears sh1t in the woods. Photoshop though is pretty stable.

whiterebel

nialler wrote: »

lol yep been there done that. My best one was two of my colleagues (this is NOT a lie) both looking at one screen, going yeah there's definitely something wrong with that, really bad, think that monitor is dead, NIALL I think my monitor is dead, so up the office I walk stand behind both of them as they gaze into the blank black screen (old 20" Radius CRT full of fingerprints and pen marks) as they sat gazing at their reflections moving on the screen, I then leaned over and hit the power button to turn it on, red faced? You bet they were.

As for Quark crashing, do bears sh1t in the woods. Photoshop though is pretty stable.

Apparently it was some combo of the two conflicting. once you changed the settings they were quite happy until the next update.