If you haven't backed up lately then your data must not be important. If you are using Time Machine to backup, did you know that backing up while any Microsoft application is open can result in a corrupted database?
If you haven't entered your info in the poll How big is your database?, please add your info. Currently, the largest number of users fall in the 1-4 GB range. The more users that contribute the more meaningful the data becomes.
Continue reading for help backing up your Entourage Identity.
Exclude your Identity folder from Time Machine
It's advised by the developers not to let Time Machine backup your Entourage database. If the database is copied while being used, the backup could be corrupt. You can set the Time Machine to exclude the Microsoft User Data folder and create an iCal event to copy it over at night while not in use so you get one backup daily in Time Machine. See links below for details.
- Open Time Machine in System Preferences
- Click on the Privacy tab
- Click on the + button
- Navigate to your Office 2008** Identities folder to exclude
Options to Backup Entourage
- Quit all Microsoft applications before backing up IMPORTANT!
- Backup Basics
- Check for Corruption
- Backup Individual Items
- Backup Your Contacts
- Archiving your e-mails with EagleFiler
- Using Automator and Entourage to back up the MUD folder
- Automated Backup with Shell and AppleScripts
- Backup Entourage with SuperDuper!
- Alternative method to use Entourage and Time Machine
- Entourage and Time-Machine-like backup (can be used by Tiger users)
Consider Off-site options
Consider saving backups off-site in addition to your in-house copies. What would you do if you your computer was stolen or if your house burned down?
Backup now! Even if it's a copy that you make in the Finder, Do it! Disaster doesn't wait until you have backed up to strike.
DropBox is an excellent option that's free up to 2GB. At least you can get your contacts backed up using DropBox. Going on the data from our poll on how big is your database?, 19% of Entourage users can backup their Identities on Dropbox for free. The cost to upgrade to 50 GB is $9.99/ month or $99.00 per year. The Pro 100 gets you 100 GB for $19.99 per month or $199.00 per year.
One of the things I like about DropBox is my clients can upload files over 2 GB to me for recovery. iDisk does not allow large files to be uploaded.
DropBox is also a great way to share large attachments rather than clogging up your Entourage database with large files.
Leave a comment
Please feel free to share your tale of woe because you didn't have a backup. We like success stories too. If anything we have published has helped save your data, we would like to hear that to.
Comments (3)
I like the new poll addition. Keep the ball roling
with more polls
There's no need if you use IMAP and MobileMe.
While IMAP and MobileMe messages are kept online, mistakes happen and the data gets erased on the server. What are you going to do then?