Backup and restore difficulties...

[jac123]

I am a developer of a stand alone access 2003 program. I have two modules: one backups my tables in the db and the other restores them to the db.
The file created when I backup the db works well, however, if the user would open that file, they would be able to change all of my preferences to the db. I want a way for this file not be be opened by the user and yet be able to restore that file when "Restore" is activated on the menu.
Any help or direction would be very much appreciated.

Thank you,

jc

 

[jrbarnett]

As you can't restrict access to the file itself, I would suggest scrambling the data and preferences in such a way that the program can't use it directly, then reverse it with the "restore" option.

This way your program is needed to restore the data to a usable form but they get a copy of their data.
If they want a live copy with unencrypted data they can use a traditional backup program, or just copy the data file on disk.

John

 

[jac123]

Thanks John - I'll try decrypting the file to see what happens.

Jeanne