Lost Database

[Christa]

HELP......I have been working on a new database for several days now and
while attempting to save changes to one of the forms, I received an "Out of
Memory" error and before I could blink, everything had closed down. I got a
message that a backup file was going to be created but nothing was. Now when
I open the original database, all I get is a blank access window. No
windows, no menus no NOTHING. Please tell me that there is a way to recover
my database......

 

[Christa]

Big sigh of Relief....my database has mysteriously resurrected from the abiss
of lost databases. However; the form that I was working on when it crashed
will no longer open. Any suggestions?

 

[John W. Vinson]

Big sigh of Relief....my database has mysteriously resurrected from the abiss
of lost databases. However; the form that I was working on when it crashed
will no longer open. Any suggestions?

First off...

*Keep Regular Backups*.

It's a good idea to make a backup copy of your .mdb (.accdb) file whenever you
have made enough changes that redoing them would be painful. You should
ideally keep the backups offsite - either using a web-based backup system such
as Carbonite (www.carbonite.com) or on CD/DVD kept in another building.

Then, read the corruption suggestions at
http://www.granite.ab.ca/access/corruptmdbs.htm

Your form is almost certainly toast at this point. *AFTER* you make your
backup, not before, use Tools... Database Utilities... Compact and Repair; if
the planets are aligned perfectly in your horoscope this might recover the
form (but that's rare).

 

[Christa]

Luckily, I did have a backup. It was just a day old and I had made several
changes today.

 

[Larry Linson]

Luckily, I did have a backup. It was just a day old and I had made several
changes today.

If I am "heavily into" development, I often save a copy of my database once
every hour or two (but I save the "whole nine yards" of offsite storage,
etc., for less-frequent copies). That has saved me uncounted hours of work
over the years.

Larry Linson
Microsoft Access MVP