[c4gooner]

I had a working copy of Mac 2004, and decided to install a dodgey copy of 2008. (Yup, call me stupid). I *think* I upgraded it so as to allow it to import all my mail.

Everything was fine until I installed the recent 12.1 service pack.. and now I cannot access 2008 at all. Whenever I open any program I am asked to register and enter a PID. I have the serial number, but where can I find the PID?

I now want to remove 2008 and go back to my original 2004. By removing 2008 will I lose all my email, or will it be saved in such a way I can reinstall and import it back.

[Cold Warrior]

The PID file is created after you enter the product's ID (PID), aka serial. It's located in Applications/Office 2008/Office/OfficePID.plist. MS routinely collects pirated serials and disables them in updaters. Since you're using a pirated copy, and if it won't accept the serial you have, that's most likely what happened.

You could always do a complete uninstall of Office 2008 then reinstall from the pre-12.1 service pack source in order to recover your email. I recommend you just get a legit copy, because you'll probably need the updaters over the years.

Also, check in your home folder > Documents > Microsoft User Data for a folder called Office 2004 Identities. This may have been left in place after your upgrade to 2008 (which may have a folder called Office 2008 Identities). The former would contain all your email at the time of the upgrade in the 2004 Entourage database format. (I'm not sure if Ent '04 can read the Ent '08 dbase format.)

I can't really condone piracy, so I'm going to lock the thread, but I've given you enough to recover your email.

Another option: If you delete the OfficePID.plist file while all Office apps are closed (including Microsoft Database Daemon visible in Activity Monitor), upon restarting an Office app, it may prompt you for your product ID / serial number. If you enter a legitimate one (i.e., from a copy you purchased), it should accept it and allow you to continue working.