QUESTION: Access 2000 (XP Pro) Goes Corrupt often...

  • Thread starter Thread starter DG
  • Start date Start date
D

DG

This seems very strange. A VERY simple database, 12 meg, one user,
everything seems fine, do some work and then close it up. Next time I open
it, it is corrupt, and even when I try to let Access repair it, the
"repaired" version is corrupt too. This happens maybe once a week. I know
there is not much information here, but I was just wondering if anybody else
has such instability with Access 2002. I have just installed XP Office SP2,
so maybe that will help (haven't tried yet).
 
No, Access 2002 seems to be very stable. However, I would check for bad
sectors on your hard drive or bad memory. If memory was a problem, I would
expect to see problems in other than Access. However, if your mdb file is
sitting on questionable sectors on the hard drive, it may be the only thing
affected.

The best way to do a surface check of the hard drive is to download the
drive manufacture's test utility. It usually creates a boot floppy and runs
from there. If you're not able to do that, open a command prompt and type

chkdsk /r
or
chkdsk d: /r

where d: is the drive letter that you want to check. If the drive can't be
locked, you will be asked if you want to do the check on the next reboot.
Press Y to answer Yes.

Make a backup copy of your file and any other critical information before
you do this.
 
OK; I'll try that but I don't think that's the problem. I have taken a copy
of the database at home and taken it to work (Win2K) and opened it using
Access 2000. I then did some changes at work, and every now then it gets
corrupted. When I say "now and then" I mean maybe after 7th or 8th time I
close the database (and quit Access) and try to re-open it.) Can it be
because I have created the DB on Access 2002, did work on Access 2000, taken
it home and did more work on Access 2002? Can there be some converting
going on in the background that is getting screwed up after going back and
forth between 2000 and 2002?
Once again, this is a very simple database, just forms and a few tables (not
even linked tables). When the db is healthy it is about 12 meg, but I've
noticed that when it "goes bad" it is down to about 3 meg.

thanks again!
 
If it is down to about 3 MB when it "goes bad" and you're able to recover
it, then it sounds as if there is a problem when you compact it. If the file
shrinks that much without being compacted, I would expect to see a loss of
data.

If the file is in Access 2000 format, it should work fine on 2002 and 2000
unless you add some functionality that exists in 2002 but not in 2000. Just
leave the file in 2000 format and there won't be any converting. Access 2000
won't know what to do with a 2002 format file, so you would have to convert
it to 2000 first using the 2002 version.

You may find the following helpful:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;209137
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;304701&Product=acc2002
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;283849&Product=acc2002
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;295334&Product=acc2002
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;303528&Product=acc2002
 
In my experience, DG, large application MDBs suffered frequent corruption
during development in Access 2000. By large, I mean larger than about eight
MBs. By application MDBs I mean MDBs containing forms, reports and modules,
not data MDBs containing only tables. I experienced the problem only during
development, not in production use, when no design or code changes were
being made.

I can't say for sure whether the later service releases make a significant
difference, because I switched to Access 2002 shortly after it was released.
I find Access 2002 considerably more stable.
 
Once again, this is a very simple database, just forms and a few tables (not
even linked tables). When the db is healthy it is about 12 meg, but I've
noticed that when it "goes bad" it is down to about 3 meg.
Click to expand...

Is it possible that the database is being opened by SOME OTHER
application? I believe that if you open a .mdb file with (say) Word,
it will be destroyed in just this way. Could some user have (perhaps)
unintentionally set up an incorrect file association so that clicking
on the database opens it in some program other than Access?
 
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