System MDW

[TomLon]

I did something stupid and password portected my DB and forgot the password. I made this more dificult by doing this to the default MDW file. I am running Office XP. I did a search for the system.mdw file but could not find it. Why would I not find it? (I did START/SEARCH and put it both system.mdw and *.mdw) I was going to replace this with another system.mdw.

Thanks

 

[lupins46]

I don't know why you can't find the file.
Access will not start if there is not a valid .mdw file.
So if you can start Access there must be .mdw file.

 

[lupins46]

Sorry that's not what I meant to say.
Access must have a .mdw file to run.
If it can't find one then it will create one.
So if you have started Access succesfully, it is simply not possible for there to be no .mdw file around.

 

[TomLon]

must be a hidden or system file. I put the tick on Search Hidden Or System files in the advanced options and it found it.

Thanks

 

[easyit]

On Xp and office 2003 the system.mdw can be located in:

C:\Documents and Settings\UserName\Application Data\Microsoft\Access\

You don't have to replace it, just delete it and a new one is created. BUT:

I doubt it will help you. No experience with db password protecting, but with other security replacing won't help you. You're still locked out. There are however numerous tools available to hack into the db, but for them you better keep the mdw. google your way into office password recovery and find out how secure this really is (not).

Good luck

EasyIT