Mystery _Backup.mdb files

G

Guest

Hi

I'm running Access 2000 on a mixture of Windows 2000 and XP clients attached
to a 2000 server. I have a number of Access databases saved in a Company
share on the server, along with a variety of other files. The entire contents
of the share is backed up nightly to tape, using Symantec Backup Exec 10d.

In recent months I've noticed that mystery "backup" files seem to appearing
in the share, which I haven't consciously done anything to set up. So for
example if I have a file MyDatabase.mdb, then a new file
MyDatabase_Backup.mdb might appear in the same folder on the share. These
only seem to appear intermittently, and if I delete one it might not reappear
for some time.

Does anyone have any idea where these might be coming from? Is there some
kind of autobackup function in Access which I'm not aware of?

Thanks for any help you can give.
Ian
 
G

Guest

Go to Tools, Options, General Tab. Is Compact on Close enabled? If so that
might be causing them if someone pulled the plug on their computer before it
was completely don; however, they usually have a different name. I recommend
turning it off.

Someone also could be going up to Tools, Database Utilities, Back Up
Database. However this usually puts a date stamp as part of the file name.
 
G

Guest

Hi Jerry

Thanks for the suggestions. I've had a look at the Compact On Close option
and it isn't enabled on the databases. The Back Up Database option doesn't
seem to be present at all - maybe that only applies to later versions of
Access?

Any other ideas?
Ian
 
D

Dirk Goldgar

Ian C said:
Hi

I'm running Access 2000 on a mixture of Windows 2000 and XP clients
attached to a 2000 server. I have a number of Access databases saved
in a Company share on the server, along with a variety of other
files. The entire contents of the share is backed up nightly to tape,
using Symantec Backup Exec 10d.

In recent months I've noticed that mystery "backup" files seem to
appearing in the share, which I haven't consciously done anything to
set up. So for example if I have a file MyDatabase.mdb, then a new
file MyDatabase_Backup.mdb might appear in the same folder on the
share. These only seem to appear intermittently, and if I delete one
it might not reappear for some time.

Does anyone have any idea where these might be coming from? Is there
some kind of autobackup function in Access which I'm not aware of?

IIRC, you get those when Access "encounters an error and needs to
close". Then by default (unless you change the option settings on the
dialog), it attempts to repair the open database. That process includes
making a backup copy that is named with the "_Backup" suffix.
 
G

Guest

Thanks Dirk.

That makes sense I guess. I'm surprised because I haven't had any problems
reported by users, or encountered any corruption myself, so it must be minor
problems that are causing the files to be created. I'll keep an eye on it.
 
A

aaron.kempf

Access MDB isn't reliable enough for real world use.

i'll bet that someone's Access crashed and now they're entering data
in the wrong backend or something ridiculous

ADP doesn't give you this much hassle

-Aaron
 
J

John Vinson

I'm surprised because I haven't had any problems
reported by users

<shudder>

"Oh, it always does that. I just click OK. Was I supposed to tell
you?" - Joe User, far more times that I want to think about it

John W. Vinson[MVP]
 

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