Error when trying to import any dbf (2003 SP2)

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Hi All,

One of the users in my department is getting an error whenever trying to import a dbf file: “Unexpected error from external database driver (8458)”

I found the microsoft problem report for this error and the desktop support guys have tried all of the steps to resolve. No luck. Since I have such good luck at getting the correct answers from the many experts on here, I thought I would check here and see if anyone knows about this error.

Thanks a bunch!

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I assume that you have looked at ACC2000: “Unexpected Error from External Database Driver 8458” Error Message When You Import dBase III File.

You might also look at How to use dBASE data with Access and Jet.
And you could check the path/filename of the dbf files – it might help if you ensured that the full path/filename is less than 64 characters long, and that the folder and file names are not longer than 8 characters and contain no spaces.

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Thanks Hans… Yes, that’s the article I found and gave to the desktop support guy to use. I’ll check the other link you mention. As for the file and path names, the department has about 15 users and all of them are fine with importing the dbf’s as required. The user with the problem is trying to get the same files from the same locations so I don’t think that is the issue.

As always… thanks for all of your advice!

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I get this message occasionally when I import a dbf with a bad date field usign A2k

1. Link to the problem dbf in question

2. Open the table in Access

3. Sort each date column. A bad date will generate an error message

a.) If Error, Start at the first record and arrow down the entire column until you hit the bad date

b.) Fix the date, select and resort the column

4. if no error, repeat step 3 for next date field

HTH, John

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Thanks John! It’s all fixed but I will keep that in mind for the future.

The problem turned out to be registry related. This article explains…
How to Control Whether Access Loads the Borland Data Engine (BDE)

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