Undeleteable records 1

[monomax]

I have a table containing information about london restaurants and there are a handful of records which I cannot delete. If I try to delete from the table, I get an error message 'The search key was not found in any records', these items have a minus sign infront of their ID number. In addition, I've based a form on the table and when I open the form, I get an 'invalid argument' message. The size of the database is 800mb which seems ridiculous. Compact and repair doesn't seem to make any difference to the file size. The database still works but I am worried that it may collapse and the data is v.important to my company.

 

[BobStubbs]

I would try:

-- Exporting the records from the table in CSV format
-- Deleting the existing table
-- Re-creating it as a new, empty table
-- Performing compact and repair on the database at this point, to see if the size returnsd to normal

If the size is now OK ...
-- Check the exported records via Excel, or maybe a text editor, and delete those with invalid ID numbers
-- Import the remaining records back into the new table.

If the database is still a strange size, there are two more things you can try:

-- Export all the data
-- Delete the data from the existing tables
-- Perform compact and repair on the empty database.

If the size is now OK, import the data again.

If this doesn't work, you will have to re-build the database from scratch, then import the data back into it.

You could do the first tests in a copy of your database - put this on your C: drive for speed. If the repair works, you could then copy the new, 'clean' table into your live database.

I hope these ideas are of some help.

Bob Stubbs (London, UK)

 

[PHV]

You may also consider a ggogle search on jetcomp.exe

Hope This Helps, PH.
Want to get great answers to your Tek-Tips questions? Have a look at FAQ219-2884 or FAQ181-2886

 

[monomax]

Thanks Bob,

I exported all the tables as .xls files, deleted the 'rogue' records and then re-imported them into an empty database.

I had a few problems exporting, which I suspect is to do with the hyperlink field. I have had problems exporting hyperlink fields before. It says 'invalid argument' when you try and export a table if it includes hyperlinks. I just cleared the field and then exported the data. Any clues as to why hyperlinks should be a problem?

 

[BobStubbs]

This might be due to one or more of the characters stored in a hyperlink. Do you have a couple of examples of these hyperlinks that you can post?

I'm thinking of the way in which spaces and backslashes can mess up file paths and URLs etc ...


Bob Stubbs (London, UK)