If you are working with an MS Access database that is fairly data intensive or if you are making regular changes in the database, it is possible that over a period of time, it experiences some damage or corruption. Here are a few tips that will help you repair your MDB database without any hassles.
Microsoft Access helps you manage complex data and data that frequently undergoes changes. However, the downside of having to handle large amounts of data and of frequently changing data is that the MDB file is more likely to undergo corruption. When you face problems in opening an Access database or when you are faced with an unrecognized database format error, you can be sure that there is some corruption in the Access database. If the corruption issues are not handled immediately, it is possible that they reach levels where it is not possible to fix the corruption and that there may be a serious loss of data. There are a few ways in which you can repair Access so that there is no data loss or at least that the data loss is minimized.
Our helpful tips should help you in preventing heavy corruption of MDB files and loss of data as well as in restoration of data.
- As soon as you suspect that an Access database is corrupt, the very first thing that you should be doing is taking a backup of the file. You might wonder how this is going to be helpful when you are going to repair the file. However, not every attempt to repair an MDB file is successful and at times, it ends up in causing more damage to the MDB file and in loss of critical data. By taking a backup that is independent of previous backups, you are ensuring that you have a copy of all the uncorrupt data so that in combination with the other backups, you can at least restore all the data from these backups if you are not able to repair Access successfully.
- When disaster does strike and you find yourself with a corrupt Access database, you should try and restore the data from your most recent backup. It is entirely possible that due to an incorrect configuration or more likely due to faulty media, the backup files are themselves corrupt. In such a case, powerful third-party solutions like DataNumen Access Repair from DataNumen can be quite handy in helping you repair Access backup. They can quickly scan the files, even from faulty media, identify the corrupt parts and then work on restoring all the data from the corrupt files.
- Microsoft Access also provides you with a very easy solution to fix most corrupt Access databases. The Compact and Repair tool can repair corrupt objects as well as fix corrupt indexes. While the compact tool will help in making better use of the free space created during various operations of the Access database, the repair tool helps in identifying what is wrong with the MDB file and then trying to repair Access.
- Not many users may be aware but the JetComp repair utility is another very useful tool to use in the restoration of data from damaged Access databases. The JetComp utility may actually be able to recover data from databases that the standard Compact and Repair utility could not repair.