Corruption

[James Arnold]

I have a fairly simple database which is used to archive records for
people enrolled on some courses. The database holds details of the
courses, learners details and enrollments (along with a few other small
things).

The database is updated daily with around 30 new records a day.
Sometimes there can be multiple users at once, but at most 2 or 3 people.

The problem I am having is that the database is getting corrupted fairly
regularly and I cannot understand why. I'm fairly new to Access so it
could be a design flaw, but if anyone can offer any pointers as to why
it is becoming corrupt, I can provide any extra information you may require.

As a side note, it used to be password protected which made it near
impossible to recover data (due to the pre-SP3 recover flaw). Since I
have removed the password it isn't corrupting as much, but I would still
like to prevent it.

Thank you,

James

 

[Joseph Meehan]

I have a fairly simple database which is used to archive records for
people enrolled on some courses. The database holds details of the
courses, learners details and enrollments (along with a few other
small things).

The database is updated daily with around 30 new records a day.
Sometimes there can be multiple users at once, but at most 2 or 3
people.
The problem I am having is that the database is getting corrupted
fairly regularly and I cannot understand why. I'm fairly new to
Access so it could be a design flaw, but if anyone can offer any pointers
as to why
it is becoming corrupt, I can provide any extra information you may
require.
As a side note, it used to be password protected which made it near
impossible to recover data (due to the pre-SP3 recover flaw). Since I
have removed the password it isn't corrupting as much, but I would
still like to prevent it.

Thank you,

James

The usual solution is to split the database on a reliable LAN. There is
a split database wizard.

The idea is the data (tables) is located in a "back end" database file
on a server and accessed via the LAN. All the forms queries etc are in the
"front ends", on each users computer. The only data on the front ends maybe
data data that would not change like certain look up tables. Much less
problems with this setup and things work faster.

 

[James Arnold]

Thank you for the information - I have split the database, so I now have
two - one with forms, reports etc and one with just tables. Is it really
as simple as that to help prevent the problem?

The original database was stored on a shared network drive, and uses
from different areas all accessed it through that drive. How is using
the split database any different?

- James

 

[Allen Browne]

Splitting is important for a shared database.

For lots of other issues you need to consider, see:
Preventing Corruption
at:
http://allenbrowne.com/ser-25.html
Post back any further questions if any of those suggestions are unclear.

 

[James Arnold]

Thank you very much! So whenever I have to update the interface I can
just change the front end, replace the existing one and not worry about
overwriting the data or importing existing records? Is there any chance
of the backend becoming corrupt still? Again, thank you for your help.

- James

 

[Allen Browne]

Yes, upgrades are a major advantage of splitting.

The back end can still corrupt due to other causes, which the article
divides into two categories: those things that can corrupt a database while
in use, and those things that can corrupt a database during development.

 

[Joseph Meehan]

Thank you for the information - I have split the database, so I now
have two - one with forms, reports etc and one with just tables. Is
it really as simple as that to help prevent the problem?

The original database was stored on a shared network drive, and uses
from different areas all accessed it through that drive. How is using
the split database any different?

With this set up the server only handles the data, not any computations
or creating of reports queries etc, So the server does far less and the
work is being done on each user's machine.