G'day,
just got despairing call from a friend whose Entourage email has
vapourised. He went to access it this morning and all the mail had
gone. He is careful with backups, so retrieved one done only a couple of
days ago, checked that the appropriate file (OSX Users/User/Documents/MS
user data/office x identities/main identity/database/database cache) had
the expected size (>600MB) and replaced the now empty working file. But
Entourage refuses adamantly to see this backed up file, insisting there
is no email.

He has agreed that Eudora, for all it's limitations (if any, I'm happy
with it) is a much safer email program because if the worst comes to the
worst, the mailboxes can be opened* with TextEdit. He's dumping
Entourage as soon as, but he desperately needs access to those files.
Any suggestions?

*provided you don't let the mailboxes grow to unmanageable sizes. Don't
be surprised if it chokes trying to open your entire email collection
over the last decade in one attempt.

~ Ian O