cannot open mdf file (Access 2003)

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I have an Access database file in 2000 format. When I tried to open the file, I received the following msg

“The Microsoft Jet database engine stopped the process because you and another user are attempting to change the same data at the same time.”

I have tried to import the data into another database but end up with the same error msg. I hold down the shift key and then click on the database, same error.

Any suggestions will be appreciated.

thanks

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It sounds like your database is seriously corrupt. Some things you can try to repair it, or to salvage as much as possible:
– Download Jetcomp.exe from Jet compact utility is available in download center; this utility can sometimes repair databases that the internal ‘Compact and Repair’ cannot handle.
– Try to import the tables into Excel (Data | Get External Data | New Database Query…); the ODBC driver operates at a low level and may be able to get at the data. This won’t retrieve other database objects (forms etc.)

If these fail, you are out of luck. Going back to the most recent non-corrupt backup you have is the best you can do, but of course, you may have lost some data.

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Hi Hans,

I had tried the MS compact utility program. It could not open/compact the damaged file at all.

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I’m afraid your database is corrupt beyond repair. Sorry.

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Charlotte suggested a decompile which worked where other methods have failed.

Just a shot in the dark.

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But decompile requires that Access can still open the database. It won’t hurt to try it, but I fear it won’t work.

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Is this a backend, frontend or combined database? Have you made certain that there are no other databases linked to it that might be open? And was the “mdf” in the subject line a typo? SQL Server has mdf files, not Access.

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it is a both front and back-end. All the forms, reports, queries, and tables are stored in the mdb file. Nothing, except Excel, can touch the file. I was able to use Excel to import some of the tables. One table, invoice details, is too big (too many records) to fit into Excel.

What surprises me is that the file that I copied from is working perfectly. Only the copied file is having problem. When I made the copy, everyone had logged off from the program already. The mdb file was not open at all.

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I would strongly suggest that you split the database into front end and back end because your risk of corruption is far higher with a combined database than with it split.

I don’t think you had previously mentioned that you copied this database or that the original worked properly. What was the purpose of copying the database? You cannot perform any data entry on a copy anyhow without risking overwriting someone else’s input, so what were you trying to accomplish? From the sounds of the error messages, there’s something going on inside the database that prevents you from compacting it. A timer would be my first thought. Can you examine the design of the original to see?

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I was making a backup copy so that I could take it home to run some analysis on the data.

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You’ve just discovered one of the good reasons to split the database into front and back ends. If it were split, you could simply copy the backend to your machine and run any analysis you pleased on it without running into extraneous issues.

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