error causes tables to be owned by user "Engine" 1

[bigaustin]

After compacting my database, half of my tables disappeared, but the data file was the same size as it had been. So the tables are still there.

I turned on viewing of system tables, and lo-and-behold, my missing tables had all become system tables. Their owner is "Engine" (the MS Jet Engine) instead of "Admin" (I'm not using security or workgroups, by the way). I cannot change permissions for the table since I am not the user Engine. Therefore my table is stuck in limbo, completely inaccessible as far as I can tell.

Any suggestions for working around this? I'm using an Access 2000 file in AccessXP on WindowsXP.

 

[RickSpr]

Wow! That's quite a problem! Engine is the foundation of the security system, and is buried very deeply so it will be untouchable. I don't think you're going to be able to get your tables wrested away from Engine's ownership. If you could find a way to do that, you could probably defeat the security of any secured Jet database, anywhere in the world!

But you might be able to recover, provided you can read the design of the Engine-owned tables. For each one, create a MakeTable query based on it, and in the query properties set Run Permission to Owner's. That should let you read the data from the Engine-owned table and copy it to a new one. You'll lose any non-Jet properties, such as field Format and ValidationRule properties, but at least you'll have your data.

At this point, I'd create a new database and import all the objects into it. Then you can restore the lost table properties and recreate the missing relationships. You'll need to recompile your queries to get them to use the relationships that were recreated. (To compile a query, open it and save it without making changes, then switch it to Datasheet View.)

Hope this works for you, because if it doesn't, I think you can kiss your access goodbye!

Rick Sprague
Want the best answers? See faq181-2886
To write a program from scratch, first create the universe. - Paraphrased from Albert Einstein

 

[bigaustin]

Unfortunately I don't have any permissions on the table, so I'm just out of luck. Thanks for taking the time to respond though. I think I spend more time looking for a solution than simply rebuilding the table I had been working on (of course I had backup copies to revert to).