Repair Mdb Files For Restoring The Database

By Author: Roger joe
Total Articles: 2
Comment this article

There are many unforeseen events which can damage the MDB files of database. Although the corruption symptoms may vary but its ultimate effect would be a paralyzed database. Some of the major reasons for MDB corruption are:

Interrupted write operation.
Damaged hardware.
Opening of MDB files in different program.

Microsoft has provisioned a utility called the Compact and Repair for repairing the Microsoft Access database files. This utility compresses the space by creating a new destination and copying objects from old database to new database.

Things to remember before repairing the MDB file’s with Compact and Repair utility:

Ensure having free storage space of twice the size of your hard disk for Access Database. Remove the unneeded files for getting more space.
Get access to both Run and Open Exclusive permissions of the Database.
Ask external users to close the Database.
Assure that Access database is not located on a shared network and only its read only attribute is available.

Steps for getting fix access to MDB:

Create a backup of the MDB files which ...
... are damaged.
Close the MDB files which are active and delete the IDB files present.

Note: The IDB files are generated with a corresponding name when a database file is opened.

Run the Compact and Repair utility
Exit the running database.
Scroll to the Tools menu > Database Utilities then open Compact and Repair Database.
Browse the file which needs to be compressed and click on Compact.
Save the file with a different name.

If this step fails then create another database and import objects in it from the old database and reestablish the relationships:

Go to the Database window and click Pages.
Select New
Scroll to the New Data Access Page dialog box and click on the Existing Web page option.
Move to the Locate Web Page window and browse the data access page.

If the damage is in a table then try these steps:

Open Microsoft Access.
Export the table to an ASCII (delimited text) file.
Disable the relationship with table and remove it from the database.
Now compress the entire database.
Recreate the tables and reestablish relationships between them.
Use word processor for verifying and removing corrupt files from the ASCII files.
Save the file in ASCII text file format and re-import it into a table.
Search for other records.

Repair the damaged reports or forms by deleting them:

Design a new form or report, and give it the controls of the original one.
If the controls are also damaged then prepare new reports and recreate the entire controls.

Get fix access to damaged macro or module files in database:

Develop a new macro/ module and copy the contents of macro or module on to it.
Save the new macro/ module in a text format.
Eliminate bad or strange data from it.
Reload the text file as a module.

Files which have not been recovered with this method can be recovered with the help of Kernel’s MDB Recovery software. It is a meticulous design for recovering the damaged MDB files.

The author is a Program and Delivery Manager with over ten years of experience. He has mentioned about the method to fix Access database and Repair MDB file with Compact and Repair utility.