Make Entourage work well with Time Machine - revisited
Oct 29, '09 07:30:02AM
Contributed by: WillowCreek
One problem for people like me who are still using Microsoft Entourage as their email client under OS X 10.5/10.6 has been its huge monolithic database file. Time Machine will try to back up the database file every time it is modified, even though only a few megabytes out of several gigabytes of the file have been changed. This can quickly fill up your backup storage, and if Time Machine is working over a network, each backup can take a long time.
This hint, which is essentially a non-geek version of this previous hint, will enable Time Machine to incrementally back up the Entourage database file. No command line operations or Unix scripting needed here; all will be done in the GUI.
- Create a sparse bundle disk image. In the Finder, check the current size of your Entourage database file, which reside in your user's Documents/Microsoft User Data/Office 2008 Identities/Main Identity folder. Open Disk Utility, click New Image in the toolbar, enter the following parameters, and click Create:
- Save As: Office_2008_Identities (exact name is not critical)
- Where: Your Documents folder (location is not critical, either)
- Name: Office_2008_Identities (again, name is not critical)
- Size: Two to three times the current size of your Database
- Format: Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
- Encryption: None
- Partitions: Single partition - Apple Partition Map
- Image Format: Sparse bundle disk image
Verify that the disk image file has been created in the Documents folder, and a new Office_2008_Identities disk image has been mounted on your Desktop.
- Move your current data. Quit all Microsoft Office applications; don't open them until everything is finished here. In the Finder, drag copy the entire Office 2008 Identities folder (~/Documents/Microsoft User Data/Office 2008 Identities) onto the new disk image mounted on your Desktop. Copy the folder itself, not just its contents.
Once the Finder is finished copying the folder, move the original Office 2008 Identities folder out of the enclosing Microsoft User Data folder and onto your Desktop (or another secure location). Keep this original folder as a backup until you verify that everything works.
- Create an alias to the database folder. In the Finder, Command-Option-drag the Office 2008 Identities folder from inside the Office_2008_Identities disk image to your Microsoft User Data folder (~/Documents/Microsoft User Data). This will create an alias to the former folder inside the latter. Once the alias is created, eject the Office_2008_Identities disk image.
That's it; now you can fire up Entourage. You will see the Office_2008_Identities disk image automatically re-mounted on the Desktop upon Entourage launch, and the application should work as if nothing has been changed. But now the huge database file will be backed up incrementally by Time Machine.
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Mac OS X Hints
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20091014152142736