URGENT HELP: Unrecognized DB format

[Guest]

Hello,
I have a split (FE/BE) database with user-level security with a total of 3
FE. When attempting to open any FE, I get the following message:
"Unrecognized database format "I:\ ...etc. which is the file path to the
location of my back-end. I am not sure what happened or what I have to do to
fix it. CAN ANYONE HELP PLEASE.

 

[Guest]

Thank you for responding.

I did try to open the BE directly and it gave me the same message. Do you
have any other suggestions?

 

[George Nicholson]

One possibility is that your BE may be damaged/corrupted. Your FE can't
establish links to the BE when first opened & gives you that "default" error
message on the failure. (It's not quite smart enough to tell you that it's a
corruption issue rather than a "database format" issue).

Try opening the BE directly and do a Compact and Repair.

HTH,

 

[George Nicholson]

-Open Access itself (with no db)
-Tools>DatabaseUtilities>Compact & Repair
-Browse/point to the BE.

If this doesn't work, I hope you have a backup of your BE.

 

[Guest]

I tried your suggestion and it did not work, it still gave me the same
message. Do you know what causes this?

Anyhow, I do have a back-up so do I just delete the current BE and replace
it with the back-up. Then create new FE?

 

[TC]

I tried your suggestion and it did not work, it still gave me the same
message. Do you know what causes this?

That message normally means that your database file has been damaged,
or, you are trying to open it in the wrong version of Access.

Anyhow, I do have a back-up so do I just delete the current BE and replace
it with the back-up.

What if you delete it, then the backup does not work? Don't delete the
bad BE. Rename it to something else, until you have confirmed that the
backup will improve the problem, not degrade it!

Then create new FE?

If the FE isn't damaged, there's no need to create a new one.

Personally, here's what I'd do.

1. Close all FEs.
2. Rename BE to BE.bad (or whatever).
3. Copy-in a backup of the BE.
4. Open, compact & close the BE.
5. Open each FE.
6. Relink it to the tables in the BE.

HTH,
TC

 

[Joan Wild]

Before replacing it with a backup, you should also try compacting your
database using Jetcomp, available at
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=273956

If that fails, try creating a new database and importing objects from the
old.

If that fails, then restore your backup

 

[Guest]

Do you think using a query from excel could work to extract the information
out of the db. I read this in an article called "How to use MS QUERY to
Recover Data from a Damaged Jet 4.0 Database"

 

[TC]

Anything is worth trying, I guess

TC