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URGENT - Corupt A97 MDB Cant Repair or Compress

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Karl Blessing

Karl Blessing

Programmer
Feb 25, 2000
2,936
US
I have a database called descriptions.mdb, yesterday when one of my co-workers is working on it through interdev, saves his changes, then closes Access then releases it on interdev so the new file can get back up to the server, he later checks it to see if the data came through, and now we cant even open the data, Access97 Keeps saying it's an unknown format, or that it has become corupt, I need to know how I can repair this, I tried looking at the hex of the database, the data seems to be all there and intact, and is roughtly the same size as a three weeks old backup copy, but we cannot get it to read.

Also tried opening it in Access2000 and running it's Repair utility, same message, the database is definitly Access97 though.
Karl
kb244@kb244.com
Experienced in : C++(both VC++ and Borland),VB1(dos) thru VB6, Delphi 3 pro, HTML, Visual InterDev 6(ASP(WebProgramming/Vbscript)

 
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Create a new database and see if you can import one table from the corupted one.
If so try another and so on.

DougP, MCP
dposton@universal1.com

Ask me how Bar-codes can help you be more productive.
 
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I have (occasionally!) been able to repair a copy of a database when the original could not be repaired.

Also, You might try to compact either the orig. or the copy.

Doug Poston's approach can also help.



MichaelRed
mred@duvallgroup.com
There is never time to do it right but there is always time to do it over
 
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Doug's approach gives me the exact same thing "Unreconized Database format...."

Lately I've been looking through hex data trying to recover what I can.

I Cant repair, I Cant compact, I cant open, I cant import, I cant do anything if the DB wont even open.
Karl
kb244@kb244.com
Experienced in : C++(both VC++ and Borland),VB1(dos) thru VB6, Delphi 3 pro, HTML, Visual InterDev 6(ASP(WebProgramming/Vbscript)

 
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Kb,

Sorry about your loss. Depending on the activity level and what you are able to recover from the 'trash' remains, it might be worth the effort to start w/ the back-up, and only recover differences.

I know this is not what you want to here, but this is the object lesson for DAILY backups and transaction logs maintained in a seperate database.



MichaelRed
mred@duvallgroup.com
There is never time to do it right but there is always time to do it over
 
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We as developers arnt supposed to be responsible for backups, but as what has happened, I guess I'll be making my own personal backups from now on, rather than relying on others, we are using the backup, but I am diging the changes I know of out of the corupt copy via Hex, then listing them out and handing them off to my co-worker to plug them in, least that way he wont have to remeber them all off the top of his head, or have to search through the big web app to find all calls for them.
Karl
kb244@kb244.com
Experienced in : C++(both VC++ and Borland),VB1(dos) thru VB6, Delphi 3 pro, HTML, Visual InterDev 6(ASP(WebProgramming/Vbscript)

 
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Kb,

I agree with you re " ... arn't supposed to ... ", unfortunatly, my experience goesa along with the premise of " ... shoulda, woulda, coulda. Spit (or whatever you choose) in one hand and wish in the other. See which one gets full first.

In one of my (long gone) 'jobs', the nework folks ASSURED me that there was a daily back up. When (note it is ALWAYS when - never IF) the system crashed and the database was thoroughly corrupted (a-la-your situation, I was pollietly informed that the back up system just skipped any 'file' ehich was in use when the backup got to it, and left a message on the SYSTEM console noting that the file was not in the backup - AND that for something over three weeks there had always been someone in the file (database) when t he back up was supposed to occur. Further, it was NOT in their policy to notify ANYONE that a backup had failed. I ALMOST kept the job, because I had both my own backup and the 'Seperate' transaction log, so was - with only a LOT of angst - able to re-build the dataset in about two hours. BTW, the transaction log showed who was 'logged-on' for those 'wee hours' of the morning, adn that they were not doing any 'work' The individual said they just didn't want to have to re-connect (over a dial-up modem), and staying in the db was convenient. If I had 'kept' the job, I would have instuituted a time-out disconnect feature IMMEDIATLY. That didn't happen.



MichaelRed
mred@duvallgroup.com
There is never time to do it right but there is always time to do it over
 
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Hmm true, but backing up seems to be one of the last things on a person's mind when reaching a release deadline, but in any case I manage to get least the new information that my co-worker had lost (my changes were just a single record, his were um,.... 30-40)

Thanks for your help, advice

oh heres one for you Michael (just say it really fast, it annoys some people when they ask you for something)

"I Would If I could, but I can't so I won't."
Karl
kb244@kb244.com
Experienced in : C++(both VC++ and Borland),VB1(dos) thru VB6, Delphi 3 pro, HTML, Visual InterDev 6(ASP(WebProgramming/Vbscript)

 
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Just a side note, if anything jobwise were to happen because of this (which I doubt) I would be the last to go since I have the highest seniority and just got a raise a day or so ago. But man o man, would I hate to see my co-workers go, let alone see them all stressed out around christmas.
Karl
kb244@kb244.com
Experienced in : C++(both VC++ and Borland),VB1(dos) thru VB6, Delphi 3 pro, HTML, Visual InterDev 6(ASP(WebProgramming/Vbscript)

 
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kb,

re your side note.

I think it's like the "un-sportsman like conduct" penalties. It's who throws the SECOND punch that gets the penalty! In that specific instance, I was on a contract, while all others were "employees". You tell me who gets to 'HANG'.



MichaelRed
mred@duvallgroup.com
There is never time to do it right but there is always time to do it over
 
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I know exactly what your talking about My co-worker and I are contractors here for the ESC, so if something fouls up, all the state employee looks at us. Of course we also get second rated hardware and what not, we just determine to make sure our side is up and working, and not touch their stuff and vice versa.
Karl
kb244@kb244.com
Experienced in : C++(both VC++ and Borland),VB1(dos) thru VB6, Delphi 3 pro, HTML, Visual InterDev 6(ASP(WebProgramming/Vbscript)

 
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It is really a mixed bag.

I have always made more $$$ as a consultant or on contract work than on the wage slave side (and I mean more even after paying a lot more for the 'benies' (read insurance and retirement).

And I really don't like having to work for "&%$#&%$#substitute your current favorite four letter description, so the independent side of me looks at the situation as an opportunity (it compensates for my laziness in not looking for a better place to begin w/).

BUT I really don't like being tarred w/ the brush dipped in the "employee's" toilet.

So, in the end I just go away into the sunset, with both positive and negative thoughts. I hope i still have better things to do in life than tilting at the windmills.



MichaelRed
mred@duvallgroup.com
There is never time to do it right but there is always time to do it over
 
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