Access Database Repair

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CORRUPT ACCESS DATABASE FAQ

Typical Causes of MDB File Corruption

There are three main causes of corruption in Access/Jet mdb files.

A. Database is Suspect/Corrupted Due to Interrupted Write Operation

You should always quit Access properly by clicking Exit or Close on the File menu. If a database is open and writing data when Access is abnormally shut down, the Jet database engine may mark the file as suspect/corrupted. This can happen if the computer is manually turned off without first shutting down Windows or if power is lost. Other situations may not shut down Access but may still interfere with Jet's writing of data to the disk while the database is open. This can happen, for instance when networks experience data collisions or disk drives malfunction. If any of these interruptions occur, then Jet may mark the database as potentially corrupted.

When Jet begins a write operation, it sets a flag, and resets the flag when the operation is completed. If a write operation is interrupted, the flag remains set. When you try to open that database again, Jet determines that the flag is set and reports that the database is corrupted. In most cases, the data in the database is not actually corrupted, but the set flag alerts Jet that corruption may have occurred. In cases such as this, compacting and/or repairing the database can typically restore the database. Fortunately, there are ways to determine which user and workstation was responsible for marking the file as suspect. See the "How to Determine What Users/Workstations Are Causing the File to be Marked Suspect" section later in this article.

B. Faulty Networking Hardware

In this case, the file corruption does not involve the Jet database engine; rather the file is literally corrupted by some outside cause. The cause can be one or more links in the hardware chain between the computer that the database resides on and the computer that has the database open. This list includes, but is not limited to, network interface cards, network cabling, routers, and hubs.

Hardware-based corruption is typically indicated by .mdb files that cannot be restored through the use of compacting, repairing, or Jetcomp. Hardware corruption will typically recur until the responsible hardware is repaired or replaced.

C. Opening and Saving the MDB File in Another Program

There is no way to recover a .mdb file that was opened and then saved in a program other than Access. For example, Microsoft Word allows you to open an Access database and then save it (although it serves no good purpose to do so because if you open an MDB file in another program, all you can see are extended characters). Saving the file in this manner will cause the .mdb file to prompt you for a database password when you try to open it in Access even though the file may have never been password-protected in Access. The password prompt occurs in such cases because the first byte range that Access checks when it opens a file is where the database password would be. If that byte contains corrupted data, Access treats the file as being password protected. Even if there were a way to get around the password prompt in this case, the database would still be unrecoverable because the binary structure is scrambled and therefore unreadable to Access. Recovering a backup copy of the file is the only solution in this case. For additional information about this issue, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

223043 ACC: Database Password Appears Even Though It Was Never Set

How to Determine What Users/Workstations Are Causing the File to Be Marked Suspect

http://download.microsoft.com/download/access97/utility1/1/WIN98/EN-US/JETUTILS.EXE

176670 ACC: Microsoft Jet Utilities Available in Download Center

Steps That You Can Take to Help Prevent Corruption

• Avoid losing power during database writes. Losing power can cause the database to be left in a suspect state.
• Avoid dropping network connections.
• Avoid abnormal termination of Microsoft Jet connections such as power loss, manual shutdown, having Task Manager shutdown the application, and so on.
• When programming, close all Data Access Object (DAO) and ActiveX Data Objects (ADO) objects that you have open. Examples include Recordset, QueryDef, TableDef, and Database objects.
  
• Fatal system errors almost always cause abnormal termination. If your database is prone to fatal errors, you should resolve the errors before the database becomes too damaged to open or recover.For additional information about the Microsoft Jet Utilities, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

  148424 ACC: Troubleshooting Fatal System Errors in Microsoft Access 95 and Microsoft Access 97

• Compact the database often.
  
  IMPORTANT: Do not run the Repair Database command in Access 97 unless Microsoft Jet prompts you to do so.
• Do not run IPX on Windows NT Server where Jet databases are located across the network and the client is Microsoft Windows 95 with IPX/SPX. Instead, run TCP-IP on the Windows NT Server and a dual protocol stack of IPX and TCP-IP on the Windows 95 client. Windows NT to Windows NT with IPX/SPX will not cause the problem, nor will Novell to any client.
• Avoid a large number of open and close operations in a loop (40,000 successive open/close operations to over 1,000,000.

Other Recoverable Errors:

The current user account doesn't have permission to convert or enable this database.

To convert or enable a database, ensure the following:
* You must join the workgroup that defines the user accounts used to access the database.
* Your user account must have Open/Run and Open Exclusive permissions for the database object.
* Your user account must have Modify Design or Administer permissions for all the tables in the database, or it must be the owner of all tables in the database.
* Your user account must have Read Design permission for all objects in the database.
* Request that other users close the database.

How do you know if a database is corrupt?

"Unrecognized database format" (When your database was operating under your current version of Access before)

"Enter database password" (when none was set)

"The Microsoft Jet Database Engine cannot open the file"

"Visual Basic for Applications Project in This Database Is Corrupt"

"Unexpected Error 35012"

An "Invalid Page Fault..." error (not necessarily a corrupt database issue)

"You do not have the necessary permissions to open this object. Please contact your system administrator."

[database.mdb] isn't an Index in this table. Look in the index collection of the TableDef object to determine the valid index names

The Microsoft Jet database engine stopped the process because you and another user are attempting to change the same data at the same time -- 3197

'Microsoft Access has encountered a problem and needs to close'

The database 'databasename.mdb' needs to be repaired or isn't a Microsoft Access database file. -- 2239

Operation failed - too many indexes - reduce the number and try again

Failure to open/failure to show error

"Microsoft jet database engine could not find object MSysDB.  Make sure the object exists and that you spell its name correctly and the path name correctly." -- 3011

"The Microsoft Jet database engine could not find the object MSysCompactError. Make sure the object exists  and that you spell its name correctly and the path name correctly"

"The Microsoft Jet database engine could not find the object 'databases'. Make sure the object exists and that you spell its name and path name correctly."

"The Microsoft Jet database engine could not find the object 'filename'. Make sure the object exists and that you spell its name and the path name correctly. " 

"Invalid field data type" -- 3259

"Record(s) can't be read, no read permissions on 'database.mdb'"  -- 3112

"Could not find field 'xxx'" -- 1017

"Invalid Bookmark" -- 3159

This database is in an unrecognized format. The database may have been created with a later version of Microsoft Access than the one you are using. Upgrade your version of Microsoft Access to the current one, then open this database. -- 3343

"You cannot carry out this action at the present time" -- 2486

"Record is deleted"

"The database has been placed in a state by user 'xxx' on machine 'mmm' that prevents it from being opened or locked" -- 3704

"Needs to be repaired" and "Not a valid password"  (after repairing) -- 2239

"The database has been placed in an unexpected state." or "This database is in an unexpected state; Microsoft Access can't open it." 
or
"This database is in an unexpected state; Microsoft Access can't open it..  The database has been converted from a prior version of Microsoft Access by using the DOA compact database method instead of the convert database command on the tools menu. This has left the database in an unconverted state."
or
"This database is in an unexpected state; Microsoft Access can't open it. This database has been converted from a prior version of Microsoft Access by using the DAO CompactDatabase method instead of the Convert Database command on the Tools menu (Database Utilities submenu).  This has left the database in a partially converted state. If you have a copy of the database in its original format, use the Convert Database command on the Tools menu (Database Utilities submenu) to convert it.  IF the original database is no longer available, create a new database and import your tables and queries to preserve your data.  Your other database objects can't be recovered."
-- 2573

"Disk Error -- Reserved error (-1601)" --3000

"Table 'TempMSysAccessObjects' already exists."

"Record(s) cannot be read; no read permission on 'MSysAccessObjects'" or Record(s) cannot be read; no read permission on 'MSysACEs'. -- 3112

"The Microsoft Jet database engine cannot find the input table or query 'MSysAccessObjects'. Make sure it exists and that its name is spelled correctly." -- 3078

"Could not use <name>; file already in use. (Error 3045) The specified file is currently being used by another user or session. Wait for the other user or session to finish working with the file, and then try the operation again." -- 3045

"Operation invalid without current index" -- 3019

"'database.mdb' isn't an index in this table. Look in the Indexes collection of the TableDef object to determine the valid index names." -- 3015

"disk or network error" -- 3043

"Unspecified Error" 

"The instruction at "0x11111111" referenced memory at "0x22222222". The memory could not be "written"

The Visual Basic for Applications project in the database is corrupt.

Error accessing file. Network connection may have been lost. or "This action will reset the current code in break mode."-- 304548

"Microsoft Access has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience."

"AOIndex is not an index in this table".