Import .mdb database from 1992

[Guest]

I've inherited a DOS database from 1992. The data is stored in a .mdb file.
I would like to import it into Access 2000 but I get an
"unrecognized database format" error. I have no idea what program was used
to generate this database.

Can anyone help me with this? Otherwise all I can think of to recover the
data is to writer reports on every table to a file and import into access as
a text file.

Thanks
Cheryl Akers

 

[Guest]

Interesting it would be an mdb file. There never was a DOS version of
Access. When do you get the error, when you try to open it or when you try
to use it?

 

[Brendan Reynolds]

You have a way to create reports? What are you using for that? How does it
connect to the data?

 

[Guest]

When I try to import it into Access 2000. There also is an .exe file with
the same name as the database and ISAMREPR and ISAMPACK utilities in the
same folder. I've actually used ISAMREPR to successfully repair the database.

 

[Brendan Reynolds]

A search on those two keywords (ISAMREPR and ISAMPACK) turned up the
following URL ...

http://www.remote.org/frederik/personal/buecher/rammpds.pdf

It's in German, which I can't read, but it would seem to indicate that you
may be dealing with a database created by Microsoft Basic PDS. (I believe
the PDS stood for Professional Development System, but I'm going from memory
and not 100% sure of that). Access doesn't have any built-in support for
this, but possibly there may be third-party utilities out there that might
be able to convert the data to something you could import into Access.

 

[Guest]

There is actually a dos based program (the .exe program) with menu items to
perform tasks such as data entry and printing reports, I was able to direct
the printed output to afile instead of to a port . It's actually a really
slick program for its time.

 

[Brendan Reynolds]

If only it had also included an export function! (You're sure it doesn't, I
suppose?)

I'm afraid I can't offer any further advise other than my suggestion
elsewhere in this thread - it may be a data file created with Microsoft
Basic PDS, and a search at Google or your favourite search engine may just
turn up something that might be able to convert it into something you can
use.

 

[Guest]

Thanks Brendan.

If only it had also included an export function! (You're sure it doesn't, I
suppose?)

I'm afraid I can't offer any further advise other than my suggestion
elsewhere in this thread - it may be a data file created with Microsoft
Basic PDS, and a search at Google or your favourite search engine may just
turn up something that might be able to convert it into something you can
use.