missing data

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Guest

I have a membership database in Access 2003 that goes back several years.
Recently, several records are just no longer there, they have disappeared.
If I search for a particular record, the data is not there. I am the only
one who uses this database. Any ideas what might have happened? I can
reenter the data that I know is missing, but there might be more that I
haven't identified yet. Has this happened to anybody else?
 
The only time I found data to go missing was with a corrupt database. During
the repair process Access told me that some data was lost. Has Access told
you to compact and repair the database lately?
Other possibilities:

1. You deleted the data either on purpose then forgot or by accident and
didn't notice.

2. You have started using a backup copy of the database OR was putting data
into a backup copy by mistake.

3. You really never put the data into the database in the first place. I've
done this.

4. The data is still there; however, you aren't looking for it correctly.
For exaple if you are doing an inner join between two tables and one table
doesn't have a matching entry, the data won't show. You enter a new customer
who hasn't made an order yet. If you joing both the customer and order tables
together, that customer won't show UNLESS you do a left join where you can
see all customers even if they haven't ordered anything.

5. At times like this, nothing beats a good backup. If you had a backup from
the time you last saw the records, you could find out what is missing if
anything.
 
I have a membership database in Access
2003 that goes back several years.
Recently, several records are just no longer
there, they have disappeared. If I search
for a particular record, the data is not there.
I am the only one who uses this database.
Any ideas what might have happened? I can
reenter the data that I know is missing,
but there might be more that I haven't identified
yet. Has this happened to anybody else?
Click to expand...

There are many things that can happen, hardware or software, that could
cause data loss. That is why the universal recommendation is for taking
regular backups, on a frequency that will minimize the amount of data
re-entry if you have to restore.

After making your backups, you should use the menu item Tools | Database
Utilities | Compact and Repair.

Before you do anything -- MAKE A COPY because attempts to recover could make
a temporary loss permanent. Be sure and do this BEFORE doing Compact and
Repair!

1. Are you sure you are searching on the exact contents of the search Field?

2. Remember that data stored in relational tables is, by definition,
unordered, so you may need to use a Query and specify the Fields to be
sorted if you are going to browse through.

3. If there is corruption in the database, you may be able to create a new
empty database, use File | Get External Data, to import the objects, _then_
Compact and Repair.

If worse comes to worse, there are third-party recovery services. One of
which I have heard nothing but good reports is http://www.pksolutions.com.

Larry Linson
Microsoft Access MVP
 
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