How to Fix Version Compatibility Problem in MS Access Database?

Last week, I had got an email from one of my friend with MS access database attachment. I had successfully downloaded Access database on my system. When I tried to open the database then got an error message “you can’t see this database, update your MS access database”. I want to tell you that am not an Access database geek so I searched on the Internet and found solution to fix the problem.

Here, I will share all the steps which I had tried to fix the problem.

1. Check the Version of my Access Database
2. Check the version of received Access database
3. Convert an Access 2000 database to .accdb file format

1. Check the version of my Access database that is MS Access 2000. You can check your Access database version by checking the registry for below key.

"HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Access.Application\CurVer", this will give you the following values:
Access.Application.8: that means: "Access 97", Access.Application.9: that means: "Access 2000", Access.Application.10 that means: "Access XP", Access.Application.11 that means: "Access 2003", Access.Application.12 that means: "Access 2007" & Access.Application.13 that means: "Access 2010"

2. Check the version of received Access database that is MS Access 2010. You can do this with the help of File-Format property. To do run this:

Set obj access = CreateObject( "Access.Application" )
Obj access. Open current database “c:\scripts\test.mdb”
Int format = obj access.current project.file format
Select Case int Format
Case 8 Print "Microsoft Access 97", Case 9 Print "Microsoft Access 2000", Case 10 Print "Microsoft Access XP", Case 11 Print "Microsoft Access 2003", Case 12 Print "Microsoft Access 2003", Case 13 Print "Microsoft Access 2003"
End Select

Note: As we know that MS Access database is not backward compatible.

3. Convert an Access 2000 database to .accdb file format, I have followed below steps to fix Access database:

• Open Access database using Access 2010 and save then as .accdb file format.
• Go to the file menu, click on the open tab select Access 2000 database that I want to see.
• Go back to the file tab, select save & publish button and then select .accdb file format to save.
• Now select “save as” tab and enter the file name to save the received Access database.
• Now open the copied Access database.
• Successfully done.

Recovered from the most dubious case of FileMaker Server crash using advanced FileMaker recovery software

I have been using FileMaker for quite a long time now. I am working with a firm and there my job is to manage and supervise the FileMaker system. But from the very beginning, I have been facing serious troubles while using a table in one of the files. Every time I try to create a new record or edit an existing one and commit changes, a deadly coffee cup appears and forces me to quit the application. This is seen with all the users on the network. Whenever someone makes changes to the table, it crashes. I have verified if there are script triggers that ran upon commit or change. But surprisingly, I cannot find a single script. Even on using layouts from external files, I experience the same thing.

To work around this, I usually reboot the server. After restarting, everything seems to be fixed and no more problems are encountered. But this problem has become persistent as of now and concerns me every time the whole company business comes to a halt. We have an archive of extremely large-sized database files and possibly there are thousands to millions of connections to the database each single day. This is because of huge number of clients and also through XML Web Publishing. This causes a lot of mess.

We don’t have a backup that can help to get away with the issue. I am planning to repair the database. But this could be dangerous as it can further intensify the problem. I have verified and disabled the server scripts, if any. Also, one more time it crashes when I attempt to run a database report. I get empty files with no data.

Certainly, it appears as a case of corruption. As the file has thousands of tables, relationships, constraints, and layouts, I fear to come to a conclusion. The problem would have been much simple if I tried to resolve it in the first place. I should probably create a copy of the database and try deleting the offending table. I may be required to rebuild the whole database.

I recently learned about commercial third-party FileMaker database recovery software. One of my friends suggested Stellar Phoenix FileMaker Recovery. The software is adept at repairing corrupt files of FileMaker Pro Advance 7.x -11.x versions. Moreover, the tool can run on Mac-Intel based computer with Mac OS X 10.5 and above. I will try this one out and see if it works for me.

Professional database recovery utilities available to repair and restore corrupt SharePoint Server

Microsoft SharePoint is a web based platform, which is aimed at secure content manage among a specified group of persons. This innovation of Microsoft has a much broader aspect than web technology and can be used to provide a variety of solutions through the web. But, at times the SharePoint server gets corrupt and a he volume of precious data becomes inaccessible. If you encounter any such situations in your SharePoint implementation, you can use any reliable SharePoint database repair utility to repair the corrupt database and regain access to the data in it.

SharePoint is one of the popular products of Microsoft among the corporate, as according to sources around 78% of Fortune 500 firms use SharePoint and the company has already sold more than 36.5 million user licenses. SharePoint has given an easy to use platform for management as well as provisioning of secure intranet portals, websites, extranet portals, social tools, business intelligence, collaboration spaces, enterprise search, system integration, process integration, work-flow automation and many more.

Thus, each SharePoint Server contains huge volumes of valuable data in it. Though more than one organization can implement a SharePoint Server together and can work as a single server firm, SharePoint stores its data in a centralized SQL Server database. Sometimes, this internal SQL Server database gets corrupt and the entire SharePoint Server becomes completely inaccessible. Below are some of the instances of data inaccessibility from a SharePoint database (MDF database):

• The MDF database file got damaged because of virus/malware infection and thus, became completely inaccessible.
• The hard drive or the array used for housing the SharePoint Server database has been corrupt and as a result of this the MDF file has become corrupt.
• Incompatibility or existing bugs in the current version of the SharePoint Server is responsible for MDF file corruption.

In any of the above situations, as the central SQL Server database of the SharePoint Server has got corrupt, no data can be accessed. Microsoft has suggested several command line utilities (DBCC CHECKDB) to repair corrupt SQL Server database and restore the data. But, in case of severe corruption, these utilities even fail to respond. Moreover, there are situations, when you can have abrupt result, following the repairing the database using these command-line utilities.

Hence, it is widely suggested to take the help of any specialized third-party database recovery software to repair SharePoint. These software are developed with many advanced techniques to repair the SharePoint Server and recover the inaccessible data safely. Moreover, with interactive graphical user interfaces, these utilities are simple in use, without much technical assistance.

An insight into FileMaker database corruption and the possible remedies to overcome data loss

FileMaker is a cross-platform relational database management system that has originated from a DOS application. It is an Apple Macintosh application specifically known for its interactive GUI-based interface that enables users to introduce new elements to their existing layouts, screens or forms in the database. It is much similar to the desktop database applications, but exceeds the storage capacity of most of these products. A FileMaker database typically faces corruption due to virus infection, hardware errors, abnormal system shutdown, etc. As a consequence, you lose access to all the valuable data stored in the database. To resolve this problem, you need to go for FileMaker pro database recovery through a trusted third-party tool.

Let's assume a real time scenario. Suppose you are a database administrator. When you try to import your FileMaker database into an excel sheet, you may encounter the below given error on your screen:

"FileMaker Pro Error: Object not found" 

Causes: The above error may occur if you perform the following course of actions:

• On the ‘Data’ menu, you select ‘Get External Data’.
• You click ‘Import form FileMaker Pro’.
• You get all the data to a worksheet.

You can only import records up to a multiple of 500 rows. If you try to import records beyond that multiple of 500, you will receive the above specified error.

Resolution: To resolve this issue, you may try exporting the file as a text file and then using it in MS Excel:

• Start FileMaker Pro and open the database that you wish to import into Excel.
• Go to ‘File’ menu and select ‘Export Records’.
• A dialog box appears. In the ‘Type’ section, click ‘Tab-Separated Text’ or ‘Comma-Separated Text’. Now, specify a new name and click ‘Save’.
• Another dialog box appears. Choose the individual fields you need to export and then click ‘Export’.
• Try to open the saved text file in MS Excel.

If the problem still persists, take help of a competent FileMaker repair tool. These third-party software are proficient in safely repairing corrupt FileMaker databases and retrieving precious tables and other valuable information in the database. Moreover, they support all Mac-Intel based computers with Mac OS X 10.5 and above.

Possible workaround for FileMaker database corruption

It is difficult to make assumptions of what exactly went wrong when you are dealing with FileMaker database corruption. One might think of 'Compact, Optimize or Recover'. You might overcome a few cases with this technique and get away with the real problem of data loss. Let's find out various options through which you can effectively handle this type of problem.

Frequently, a FileMaker file gets damaged because of unwanted or unnecessary power surges. When ever the application closes unexpectedly, it s very likely that the file will get damaged. FileMaker 9 Server performs a consistency check that typically includes the following set of actions:

• Verifies the block structures (4K blocks)
• Checks if the next and previous blocks are present.

Now, use the following options to recover FileMaker database in the event of corruption:

• Save a Copy As → Clone:

This command is not exactly to fix any corruption. Instead, it enables you to get the clone or an identical image of your file's structure without any data. The significance of this command is that it deletes or removes all the locale info from the file. The locale info includes all region specific data, such as dates, time, etc.

• Save a Copy As → Copy:

This command would allow for creating a block by block copy of your file.

• Save a Copy As → Compacted:

This command implements the 'Compact and Optimize' technique. This process is performed on a copy of the file, thus helping you to protect or safeguard the original data. You can also find the 'Compact' and 'Optimize' options in the 'File Maintenance' menu.

• Recovery command:

This command will ensure that all the invalid blocks are removed from the file when it is recovered. It performs complete scanning of the file and then validates the data blocks. If it finds a corrupt block, it will simply skip the block. A valid block will have the below properties:

• Each block will have a previous and next block containing data.
• The block will have a length of 4K and should be in correct order.
• The block should not be a duplicate of its preceding one.