Database Corrupted?? Permissions Problem?

[hoppergs]

I have a database which all of a suddent will not open! When I try to open it I get the message "You do no have the necessary permissions to use the "databasename.mdb" object. Have your system administrator or the person who created this object establish the appropriate permissions for you".

I'm the person who created this but it doesn't even get to the logon screen, so as far as I can see I can't change any of the permissions?

Can anyone help me??

Thanks

Graham

 

[hoppergs]

Because the workgroup file was stored locally, no backups are taken. Basically all I have are the present files and any I create from now on!

 

[JimInKS]

hoppergs wrote:
I've tried re-creating the workgroup file but STILL no joy!!  The only information asked for when I did this were the Name, Organisation and Workgroup ID - I input them in exactly the same way as they originally were but the same message blocks the database from opening.

You will have to enter all your group and user information also. Again Exactly as you did before (at least the administrator information).

If you have successfully created and joined the workgroup file, you should be prompted to enter a Logon Name and Password EVERY TIME you open a database. When you try to login if you don't enter uername and password pair that are in the workgroup file you should get and error like Not a Valid Account Name or Passoword. If Access takes your login and you get a message about not having rights to open the db then that is an issue with setting the security properly.

My gut feeling is that we are still not doing something quite right and we can still recover this. I would suggest reading up on Access security. This FAQ faq181-1131 should get you started. Then I would create a little test database and play around with the security on it to get comfortable with how this works. Then we can take another crack at this db.

How important is the data is in the database and how urgently do you need it?

 

[ahmun]

Some more wild "shots" to try...

1. Create a user account called "engine" and see if you can at least get into the DB and export all the files to a new DB that is not secured (and then reset permissions from there)

2. Tell us more about these network problems that preceded the lockout of the database.

3. that ".BAK" file you mentioned? Try renaming it to it's name.MDB... and maybe it is an automatically generated copy of your DB pre-security. Earnie Eng
If you are born once, you will die twice.
If you are born twice, you will die once

 

[hoppergs]

Tried the wild shots......

1) A user account called "engine" already exists - this is a system account that you never see but obviously can't be overwritten.

2) As for the network error, I was working on a database that's in the same directory as the one that's not opening when I tried to save something and I received an error message about the network. If anything I'd have thought that this database would have had a problem - not the other one, as I never opened it that day at all. Then the next time I went into it I got this message - been the same since. Only thing that the problem file has that the other ones on the same directory don't is security.

3) The ".bak" file does open fine, but I actually implemented the security some time ago and a lot of work (probably around 3 weeks' worth) has been done since then - unfortunately all the meaty stuff!

I realise now that security is probably the last thing that should be added to a database - I'll know the next time!

Thanks

Graham

 

[Hasse]

Graham,
I don't know what the others think but... concerning security, I definitely don't use Access' security feature. (...)

When you work on a network/..., you can 'get' the user name with a function executed when opening the database. In a table you can describe all users' rights/profile and use this information to allow him/her certain tasks, show/hide stuff,... Untill now, this worked great and also a company to which we outsourced a project uses this workaround. Might be a path worthy to explore...
Greetings,
Hasse

 

[hoppergs]

I've heard that you can download a "decompiler" for Access databases that might help with this sort of thing - have any of you used one of these and if so recommend a website that I could find one on?

Thanks

Graham

 

[Lightning]

I don't know about downloading a decompiler, but there is a Decompile command line option for Access. It is undocumented, so use with caution.

I've only ever used this once, and it was with Access 97. From memory, it is

<<Path to MSAccess.exe>> <<Path to Your database>> <<Path to Workgroup File (If needed)>> /Decompile.

I can't find my reference to this procedure at the moment, but I'll keep looking and post again when I find it.

Lightning