Repair a damaged Jet 4.0 database in Access 2000

Environmental factors also leave your database file damaged. The symptoms of a corrupted database can start by showing that certain of your records are deleted, to the inability to open one of the objects in the database, to the complete inaccessibility to open the access database file. The inbuilt Compact and Repair utility in MS Access is a useful tool that you can use to recover and to optimize MS Access 2000 database files. But if database corruption persists even after running the above utility, then you will need to use a commercial Access Database Recovery application to repair your database.

Important Guidelines for Running the Compact and Repair Utility

Before you can run the inbuilt “Compact and Repair” Utility on a database, take care of the following conditions:

• You must logon with an account that has Modify Design or Administer security permissions for all tables in the database.
• Enough disk space must be there for both the original and the compacted versions of the database.

The repaired or compacted database is renamed as the original database only when the Compact and Repair utility is successful.
Other users must not have the database open.

When a database is compacted, the database must be opened exclusively by Microsoft Jet to prevent any users from accessing and from modifying the database during the process.

Run the Compact and Repair utility as follows:

1. If the database is open, close it.
2. On the Tools menu, point to Database Utilities, and then click Compact and Repair Database.
3. In the Compact Database From dialog box, click the file that you want to compact, and then click Compact.
4. In the Compact Database Into dialog box, enter a new file name, and then click Save.

If the compact and repair does not succeed, you receive a message stating so. This means the damage is so severe that the damage cannot be corrected by compact and repair utility, then you will need to opt for a third party Access Database Repair software. These Access Recovery tools scan the corrupted database objects, repair them and restore the repaired object at user specified location.

MDB file corruption due to Interrupted Write Operations

A normal MS Access database user opens and closes its database file (MDB) various times in a single day. Alterations, such as, updation, addition, and deletion in database files are performed to fulfill all the personal or professional requirements. Since, the database is opened and closed numerous times, the probability of improper shutdown always persists. In most cases of unexpected shutdown (manually turning of the system), the Jet database write operation is interrupted. The Jet database engine sets a flag while beginning a write operation, and resets the flag when the operation is complete. However, if the database engine write operation is interrupted, the flag remains set and when you attempt to start your database, Jet reports that your database has been corrupted. To overcome such corruption situations, a valid database backup enables you to restore the data. However, if no backup is available or backup falls short to restore the required data, then you will need to use advanced access recovery application.

As a practical case, you accidentally perform improper system shutdown of your system when some write operation was being executed. However, when you restart your system and attempt to mount your database, you receive an error message stating that your database has been corrupted. Furthermore, the records stored in your database become inaccessible. To access the records after database corruption, you will need to repair the database using the underneath steps:

· Select “Database Utilities” on the Tools menu
· Click on Compact and Repair Database.
· Search for the database file in the ‘Database to Compact From’ dialog box
· Click on Compact.
· Choose a new folder destination for the new file in the ‘Compact Database Into’ dialog box.
· Provide a unique, valid, and new name for the database file
· Click on Save.

If the repair utility is unable to repair your corrupted database, then you will need to opt for third-party access database repair application. Such Access Repair applications employ powerful scanning methods to recover lost Access database recovery components and repair corrupt MS Access database.

Access Recovery is a user-friendly tool that provides preview of all recoverable database objects through its demo version. The non destructive Access Repair tool is compatible with Microsoft Access 2007, 2003, XP (2002), and 2000 and restores the recovered data on the new or user-specified location.

Resolving errors post Microsoft Access Jet database Engine corruption

The core database engine for Microsoft Access database is Microsoft JET Database Engine. The database engine handles your MS Access database by using three different modules. The JET (Joint Engine Technology) add various functionalities to MS Access, such as, enforcing referential and entity integrity, transaction processing, simultaneous multiple-database users access, and more. While the Microsoft JET Database Engine provides incomparable benefits, a small corruption in the database engine can result in serious damage of Access database files. In such situations, the ideal way is to restore the Access database files from an updated backup. However, if no backup is available, then you need to use advanced access database repair tool to repair your database files.

The error message that you might meet after your Access database gets corrupted due to Microsoft JET Database Engine damage:

“The Microsoft Jet database engine could not find the object 'filename'. Make sure the object exists and that you spell its name and the path name correctly”
Or
“Microsoft jet database engine could not find object MSysDB. Make sure the object exists and that you spell its name correctly and the path name correctly”
Or
"The Microsoft Jet database engine could not find the object 'databases'. Make sure the object exists and that you spell its name and path name correctly"
Or
“Microsoft Jet Engine can't open the file”

Due to these error messages you are not able to access the records from your database when you try to mount your database.

Microsoft JET Database Engine damage or corrupt due to improper system shutdown, application malfunction, human errors, and virus attacks.

To resolve all above error message and access the records from database files, you need to opt for advanced access repair tool. Such repair tools ensure safe repair of database without modifying the original content of the database.