Locked myself out as administrator

[Guest]

I use Access 2002 at a Hospital here in Houston. I set up a database using
access 2 years ago. I am not necessarily a "computer" person, however because
of limited funds I was delegated the job. I recently went into access and
deleted a group of students from a workgroup and added some new students. I'm
not exactly what i did, however I had done it before and I managed to remain
the sytem admin and add the students names and passwords without a problem.
After Access generated the new security file i could not do anything with the
data base.....i could log on and access the tables and forms, queries etc,
however it would not allow me to edit anything. I assumed I had done
something wrong, and attempted to go back into security and run it again but
i get a "you do not have permission.." message. Apparently the Data base is
not recoginzing me as the Administrator anymore. This has been incredibly
frustrating .....I set up the security function in order to keep students
from going into the Data base and wreaking havoc....however I have now
"secured" myself out of a Data base with a huge amount of information I have
accumulated and from which i was responsible for issuing monthly reports. I
would greatly appreaciate any help someon could offer either directly or
pointing me in the right direction.....Like i said I am not a computer "geek"
just a guy that wanted to use the tools available in MS office to make my
work life easier. Thanks...

Mike G

 

[Joan Wild]

I use Access 2002 at a Hospital here in Houston. I set up a database
using access 2 years ago. I am not necessarily a "computer" person,
however because of limited funds I was delegated the job. I recently
went into access and deleted a group of students from a workgroup and
added some new students.

When you 'went into access' did you log in as the 'administrator'?

I'm not exactly what i did, however I had
done it before and I managed to remain the sytem admin and add the
students names and passwords without a problem. After Access
generated the new security file

Why did you generate a new security file? You should have just been
modifying the workgroup file that existed already.

To add/remove users, did you go through the security wizard? Did you just
use the menus (Tools, Security, Accounts)? What exactly did you do?

i could not do anything with the data
base.....i could log on and access the tables and forms, queries etc,
however it would not allow me to edit anything.

Logon as who? The administrator, one of the new student users?

I assumed I had done
something wrong, and attempted to go back into security and run it
again but i get a "you do not have permission.." message.

What do you mean by 'run it again'. You should not be repeatedly running
the security wizard if that is what you mean.

I would greatly
appreaciate any help someon could offer either directly or pointing
me in the right direction

You should be OK. Do a search on your computer - Start, Search for Files
and search for *.mdw
Post back with what you find.

 

[TC]

Be aware that access security is (unfortunately) crackable using
products that your students have probably got their hands on. This is
not the cause of your problems, but, it may give you pause to consider
what is the value of the data that you are protecting.

HTH,
TC

 

[Guest]

When you 'went into access' did you log in as the 'administrator'?

Joan, When I set up the Database 2 and one half years ago I set it up
with me as administrator, and also as a user. I've always logged on with my
name and password as a user, which also allowed me to function as the
administrator since I had granted myself those rights. Unfortunately I do not
remember if I had a password as an administrator. I know bad move. Hindsight
is 20/20.

Why did you generate a new security file? You should have just been
modifying the workgroup file that existed already.

I had some problems in the past with modifying the workgroup and the
Microsoft book "Access step by step" recommends using the security wizard.

To add/remove users, did you go through the security wizard? Did you just
use the menus (Tools, Security, Accounts)? What exactly did you do?

Well I originally used the Tools, security, to delete the old students and
then I went through the security Wizard to add the new students. The weird
thing is, the new students passwords don't work, but if they click on "ok"
when it tells them they are not a valid account, it opens the data base
anyway.(??)

Logon as who? The administrator, one of the new student users?

Logon on a myself, since I am one of the users also.

What do you mean by 'run it again'. You should not be repeatedly running
the security wizard if that is what you mean.

Yes thats what I meant, I ran the security wizard again. Well I
figured since its the Wizard, it could figure out what was wrong

You should be OK. Do a search on your computer - Start, Search for Files
and search for *.mdw
Post back with what you find.

Joan I have the following MDW files on the computer, I've included the
size and date modified
System1.mdw 104KB 1/13/2004
System2.mdw 104KB 8/14/2005
Secured.mdw 172KB 7/24/2003
Secured.mdw 412KB 8/5/2005
Secured1.mdw 112KB 8/3/2005
Secured2.mdw 112KB 8/3/2005
Secured3.mdw 112KB 8/4/2005
tcdb.mdb.mdw 104KB 8/5/2005
tcdbperf.mdb.mdw 104 KB 8/5/2005

I think some of these must have been generated when I made my futile
attempts to fix the problem. I had read on a web page after searching for
solutions, that the way to work around my problem was to create another data
base and just copy or export the "old" data base to the new data base. Which
struck me as odd since if its that easy to get around the security, why even
have it?..Needless to say it didn't work..

Thanks for your help.

Sincerely
Mike

 

[Joan Wild]

Well I originally used the Tools, security, to delete the old
students and then I went through the security Wizard to add the new
students.

Well you should have just used the Tools, security, Accounts to create the
new ones as well.

Yes thats what I meant, I ran the security wizard again. Well
I figured since its the Wizard, it could figure out what was wrong

A wizard just does a series of steps for you; you give it far too much
credit.

Joan I have the following MDW files on the computer, I've
included the size and date modified
System1.mdw 104KB 1/13/2004
System2.mdw 104KB 8/14/2005
Secured.mdw 172KB 7/24/2003
Secured.mdw 412KB 8/5/2005
Secured1.mdw 112KB 8/3/2005
Secured2.mdw 112KB 8/3/2005
Secured3.mdw 112KB 8/4/2005
tcdb.mdb.mdw 104KB 8/5/2005
tcdbperf.mdb.mdw 104 KB 8/5/2005

I think some of these must have been generated when I made my futile
attempts to fix the problem.

I agree. Everytime you ran the security wizard, it created a new workgroup
file, which is what you don't want. Do not run it again.

It would have been helpful to also see the full paths to these files. What
I would do is create nine desktop shortcuts.

Put the following in the target of each:
"path to msaccess.exe" "path to your secure mdb" /wrkgrp "path to mdw"
Substitute the correct paths in the above, and for each shortcut change the
path to mdw to one of the ones listed above.

Then open each one, logging in as you (as user) until you find the one that
lets you edit your database and add/remove users (gives you full
administrative abilities).
Once you've found it, I would copy the other eight mdw files to CD/floppy,
and then delete them from your computer.

Do not run the security wizard again. Just use the Tools, Security,
Accounts menu to add and delete users.

 

[Guest]

Well you should have just used the Tools, security, Accounts to create the
new ones as well.


A wizard just does a series of steps for you; you give it far too much
credit.



I agree. Everytime you ran the security wizard, it created a new workgroup
file, which is what you don't want. Do not run it again.

It would have been helpful to also see the full paths to these files. What
I would do is create nine desktop shortcuts.

Joan , the full path to the files is
C:\Documents and Settings\mgallagher\application data\Microsoft\Access

Put the following in the target of each:

Sorry joan, forgive me...what do you mean by "target"?

"path to msaccess.exe" "path to your secure mdb" /wrkgrp "path to mdw"
Substitute the correct paths in the above, and for each shortcut change the
path to mdw to one of the ones listed above.

I'm not really sure what you mean by the above....do I just enter the
mdw location at the end of path I just showed you above?

 

[Joan Wild]

No Mike, create a desktop shortcut.

Right-click on your desktop and choose New, Shortcut.

In the dialog, click on browse and browse to the location of msaccess.exe
(Crogram Files\Microsoft Office\Officexx\msaccess.exe) (xx may be 10, 11
or nothing depending on version)
Then click Finish.

Now right-click the shortcut that was created and click on Properties.
You'll be on the Shortcut tab and the Target textbox will be selected.
You'll see the "path to msaccess.exe" is already there. Click at the end of
that and add "path to your secure mdb" /wrkgrp "path to mdw" (substituting
the correct paths to your files).

Once you have this one done, copy and paste it eight times on your desktop.
Then edit each one (as above) and change the name of the mdw to reflect each
of the mdw files you found.

 

[Guest]

No Mike, create a desktop shortcut.

Right-click on your desktop and choose New, Shortcut.

In the dialog, click on browse and browse to the location of msaccess.exe
(Crogram Files\Microsoft Office\Officexx\msaccess.exe) (xx may be 10, 11
or nothing depending on version)
Then click Finish.

Now right-click the shortcut that was created and click on Properties.
You'll be on the Shortcut tab and the Target textbox will be selected.
You'll see the "path to msaccess.exe" is already there. Click at the end of
that and add "path to your secure mdb" /wrkgrp "path to mdw" (substituting
the correct paths to your files).

Once you have this one done, copy and paste it eight times on your desktop.
Then edit each one (as above) and change the name of the mdw to reflect each
of the mdw files you found.

Joan,
I tried your recommendations and several of the mdw files open the database
after I log on as a user, however none of them give me full administrative
priviliges. This is despite the fact that when I look under "administrator"
it has my name and shows me as getting full privileges. I've tried entering
"administrator" in the log on box and tried several of the passwords I
normally use and no luck....I'm at wits end. Thanks Mike

 

[Joan Wild]

Joan,
I tried your recommendations and several of the mdw files open the
database after I log on as a user, however none of them give me full
administrative priviliges. This is despite the fact that when I look
under "administrator" it has my name and shows me as getting full
privileges. I've tried entering "administrator" in the log on box and
tried several of the passwords I normally use and no luck....I'm at
wits end. Thanks Mike

Well at least you can get in. Since you can see the permissions for
'administrator', that suggests that you do have administrative permissions.
Are you able to add you (as user) to the Admins Group?

Also which mdw files give you access?

Try this. Log in as you (as user); create a new mdb and see if you can
import all objects from your mdb. If you can then you (as user) will now
own all objects, however security will be removed from the mdb. If you can
get this far post back.

 

[Guest]

Well at least you can get in. Since you can see the permissions for
'administrator', that suggests that you do have administrative permissions.
Are you able to add you (as user) to the Admins Group?

Also which mdw files give you access?

Try this. Log in as you (as user); create a new mdb and see if you can
import all objects from your mdb. If you can then you (as user) will now
own all objects, however security will be removed from the mdb. If you can
get this far post back.

Yes Joan I can get in but I can only enter data in the forms. I am unable
to run queries or generate reports. Thats because the only privileges I
extended the group was data entry.

I had tried earlier to create a new data base and import the data from the
"old" database without luck. I will try again tommorrow and also let you
know the names of the files that do allow me entry. Thanks.
Mike

 

[Joan Wild]

Try logging in as 'administrator' and leave the password blank.