Using Access 2002 (XP) with Access 2003?!

[jsteph]

Hi all,
I used to be able to use access 97, 2002 and 2003 on the same box with no problems. Usually if I go from one to the other, the msi Installer appears for a few seconds and it appears to swap some Registry keys, so the next time you dbl-click on an .mdb it opens the last version that you used, and likely a few other classes keys.

With that said, the last time I tried to open Access 2002, the msi Installer appeared as normal but it began an unmitigated thrashing of the harddrive with great vengance and furious anger. It sounded like a busy roadwork project with a dozen jackhammers banging away in a wild staccato pace--and this went on for over 5 minutes! I seriously feared for the physical safety of my harddrive to the point I it thought it would just die out of pure exhaustion, so I had to kill msiexec via Task Manager.

Has anyone come across this, and do you have any idea what could cause this, and how would I avoid this? I need to use Access 2002 for Speed Ferret--it's the lastest version on which it will work.
Thanks very much,
--Jim

 

[lameid]

Taking a guess since no one is reponding....

It must be installing more than a few keys now. You might try reinstalling them in the appropriate order fully patching each one as you go and see if that fixes it.

When I tried Access 2007 I think it tried to do a full product install of that or Access 2003 everytime I switched. That and the memory requirement sent Office 2007 packing.

A virtual machine may be worth setting up to get around it if it persists.

Another thought, does your HD get unusually loud when you do a lot of writes? It may be dying... backup your data. If it is an doing an install everytime, defragging may help the thrashing effect too.

 

[jsteph]

lameid,
Thanks, I did up re-installing, but it was becuase I did an entire windows re-install after a motherboard replacement. So I'll never know exactly what it was doing, but it was pretty crazy.
The HD activity wasn't necessarily louder than normal, it was just the intensity of it--almost like it was one of those benchmarking programs stuck in high gear.
--Jim