Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Fixing corrupt Access databases with Compact and Repair utility

Are you unable to open an MDB database file in Access? Are certain records in your Access database replaced by #deleted? If your response to the above-stated problems is a clear 'Yes', then you are in a fix. These symptoms suggest that the Access database in question is, undoubtedly, corrupt. An Access database can become corrupt in instances like bad networking hardware, interrupted write operations, opening or saving MDB file in another application etc. In such situations, you must rely on using the Compact and Repair utility to repair and optimize the affected database. This article will make you familiar with the Compact and Repair utility and its various aspects. Additionally, you will learn how to perform Access repair task in a correct way.

Understanding Compact and Repair

This utility should be used at regular intervals in order to safeguard information stored in an Access database. The compact process makes sure you reclaim the unused space, created by object and record deletions, in an Access database file. Compacting a database is necessary because when objects and records are deleted, only the space becomes available for new additions but the size of the database remains same. Therefore, you should compact a database frequently.

After compaction gets over, the repairing process starts and all of the queries, tables and indexes are repaired.

Steps to consider before running the Compact and Repair tool

•Ensure you have at least twice the size of your Access database space available on the hard disk
•Ensure to set both Open/Run and Open Exclusive permissions for the Access database
•If the Access database is in a multi-user environment, ensure that no user has it open
•Ensure that the Access database doesn't have the read-only attribute or it is not stored on a read-only network share

Steps to repair database

1.Make a backup copy of the damaged database
2.Make sure to delete the LDB file after closing the related MDB file
3.Go to Tools menu Database Utilities, and click Compact and Repair database
4.Choose the file which you want to compact in the Database to Compact From box, and click Compact
5. Enter a new file name in the Compact Database box, and click Save

The above-mentioned Access database repair methods do not help in severe corruption scenarios. Moreover, you cannot repair damaged forms, reports, macros or modules with Compact and Repair utility. Therefore, in order to perform effective repair, you must employ a third-party Access repair application.

Being a read-only software, Access Recovery repairs and recovers corrupt Access databases along with all components (tables, forms, macros, modules etc) in a safe manner. This Access database repair application supports MS Access 2007, 2003, 2002 and 2000 versions.

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