Address book file corrupted- how to fix or restore from .Mac?

Old HD crashed, replaced it and reinstalled 10.3 and updated it to 10.3.9. Restored my data from backup drive using Retrospect Express (bad move, but it's all I had). Permissions messed up, I'm slowly fixing them (is there a fast/batch fix for this? Disk Utility is useless).
Tried to open Address Book, get error message "Couldn't open the Address Book database. The database is corrupted." Fine- tried deleting the database from ~/Library/Application Support/Address Book. The program then starts up but immediately quits w/o any error message.
If the data file can't be fixed, what do I need to delete so that the Address Book will "start up fresh"? I think I can recover the data elsewhere (.Mac and my Palm).
Cheers,
Prem

Well, in case anyone cares, you have to delete the entire AddressBook folder, not just its contents, from Home/Library/Application Support. Using iSync then restores your contacts.

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Motorola phone and Address Book might not agree of what a correct VCard is.
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In your /Home/Library/ folder:
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Hi
I have 1 address book 'file' separated into two groups - my contacts and my wifes contacts. The 'file' is in icloud and thus syncs between our iMac and our iphones. Generally this works fine but there are a couple of drawbacks -
1. obviously both of us have both groups of contacts on our phones (I have mine and hers and she has hers and mine); not a huge issue but not perfect. Is there anyway of automatically syncing just individual groups so I can sync just mine and she hers?
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Thanks Barney.
You have helped me understand my requirements more clearly but I don't think I'm explaining my self very well.
I think ICloud is great (I was one of those that paid £70 each year for mobile me) - My issue is with groups on address book.
I now understand that iOS devises just don't do what I'd expect which is to allow me to add a new contact to a specific group (shame as it is kind of a basic function)
What I don't understand is why, when back on my Mac, I can't find out which contacts need to be moved to a group. Smart groups plain just don't work and there seems to be no other way of finding them other than totally manually.
Either I've missed something it's a poor design - any ideas?

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Are the address book files in Home - Application Support - identical to those in Home - Library - Application Support.
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Hi,
There shouldn't be an Application Support folder in your Home Folder, just in your Home Folder->Library folder. Don't know how you got it, so I can't offer any further advice. Maybe you accidently copied it there? Or moved it there? Did you notice a loss of application preferences at any point in the past?
The Application Support folder in your Library folder should be the one that the OS keeps updated; the other might just be a red herring, otherwise there's something screwy going on.
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Hi BDAqua--
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Address book file corrupted- how to fix or restore from .Mac?

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