[X]My Assistant

[marizeye]

Hi

I have no programming knowledge, just knowledge of simple troubleshooting and setting up, acquired over the years.

I have an Access 97 database with lots of data on it that has been running (choppily) on a computer running Windows 7, which also has Access 2010 on it for a different database. The reasons why for all that are too much of a shaggy dog tale. The Access 97 one now is showing signs of being corrupt in one of the fields, just for 3 records, and another field just for 1 record. I tried deleting what was in one of the corrupt fields and replacing this, it resulted in the entire record getting deleted.

What seems to be happening is instead of showing it's own data, it is pulling in data from a nearby field plus the usual random numbers/symbols. All the relationships seem to be ok. I tried deleting the corrupt fields from the form in design view and re-adding them, no luck. The errors are in table form too.

I tried previous back ups, no luck. I tried compacting and repairing the database a few times. It fixed one of the corrupt fields, but the others are still corrupt.

I don't know what the best solution is for someone without programming skills. Can I just open a copy in Access 2010 and hope the conversion goes ok, or will the errors prevent that? Should I get an old PC with nothing else on to run it? Should I set up a virtual old copy of windows on the current PC? Will re-doing the corrupt fields with different names, filling the new field by hand and then eventually deleting the old one be a solution?

Any pointers or suggestions most welcome -

Many thanks

[cheekybuddha]

I'm no expert when dealing with corruption.

The first thing you should do is to always operate on a COPY of your db, leaving the original as unchanged as possible.

A good place to start is here at Allen Browne's.

I'm sure others can pitch in with their experience when they come online.

hth,

d

[isladogs]

Allen Browne's site covers most of the most common issues causing corruption

If you are seeing the error when viewing the data in a form, its possible that the compiled code is corrupted.
If so, decompiling may fix the issue. See http://www.fmsinc.com/microsoftaccess/Perf...e/Decompile.asp

However if the corrupted data can be seen when viewing the table, that won't help.
I would then suggest making a copy of the table with all except the 4 corrupt records.
Then recreate those records manually using data from backups if necessary.

If you can do that successfully, I would then import all the database objects into a new A97 or preferably a new A2010 database.

I've done this for various clients in the past, almost always successfully by using multiple backups.
However, it can take time so would be chargeable if you want any assistance with that process.

[marizeye]

Hi

The error can be seen in tables so it sounds like I need a specialist to do some work

Thanks for your help

[marizeye]

Many thanks

[AlbertKallal]

One possible is to use Access 97 to create a new blank database.

Then import everything from the old to the new fresh mdb. This tends to "fix" more things then a compact + repair.

R
Albert