Access hates me

[Becca]

Hi

I was working on my most fantastic form, had attached another subform to it (no.5) and was changing the view to view the result, and *boom* access shut down on me.

I reopened the file and now the form no longer is listed in my list of forms, instead I have about 15 phantom form icons with no names. I click on these and they say they don't exist - very weird. Unfortunately, i had not backed up since earlier this week, and would hate to lose all the work. Does anyone know if there is anything I can do to recover the form?

 

[The_Doc_Man]

Take a backup copy now before anything else happens.

Then run a database repair. See if you only lose the phantoms or whether you also lose other stuff as well.

If the repair doesn't work, next step is to create a new database and import stuff into it from the corrupted database.

It is rare (though not unknown) for Access to just fold up and slink away without so much as a faretheewell. Did you get any message just before this event? (Or a message from Windows itself regarding "page file nearly full" or something similar?)

Good luck.

 

[Kevin_S]

Becca -

Unfortunitely I must say you have just been Baptized into the world of Access... Its pretty common for Access to give you the "An error has occured and Access is about to shut down" type message that doesn't allow you to save and simple leaves you high and dry. Your problem, although it is uncommon, is not unheard of and somewhat typical. The most common solution here is the good ole' "make a new database and import the objects" type thing...

I personally find it humerous and sad that one of the most common fixes for Access problems due to corrupt dbs is to import into a new db, cross your fingers, and try again...

Sorry about your problem and I wish you luck,
Kev

 

[ecniv]

Hi,

As Kev said, its create a new and import.

Happened to me a while ago, and I got so annoyed ('cause of the custom menu as well as other bits) and happened because I was instancing windows and the comp ran out of memory.

Anyway I wrote som code to create a menu for me, disabling all other toolbars, forgot about using the instancing except for list boxes (class module to fill em) and separated as much as possible so I didn't have to recode.

Haven't had a crash in a while now

Good luck in fixing it.. always annoying when it crashes, but at least from now on you'll have five backups of various stages just incase


Vince

 

[Becca]

Thanks guys

Doc Man, Kevin and Ecniv

Thanks for you help, I have just given in and just imported the stuff that wasn't schmeared into a new db. Unfortunately, i had tried the repair thing, but it didn't help. Interesting by word on this - my problem sounded more like Ecniv' experience with the "Computer out of memory " error message as it seemed to pop up when I tried to import some of the forms into the clean up db. So I think I must have done something when I was addding the final subform.

One other thing, it was my master version that was corrupted, and when I inport the tables into the new db I get these extra fields in the tables with the header and data below:
s_ColLineage s_Generation s_GUID s_Lineage
68 {F99A7EB2-4896-43D3-AEDD-5485E8E77630}
68 {DEA40C0D-B440-4A24-B6BC-EAFC5BC655F5}
68 {EC541352-AE4B-4047-B1F7-2A67F15FDB2B}

Unfortunately I can't seem to get rid of these fields either as they are tied somehow to the replication system. My only option I gues is to run some make table queries to get rid of the columns, then reconstruct all my relationships? Any thoughts of other ways to get rid of this sort of stuff? I have about 60 tables and am looking for a quick and dirty if at all possible.

Thanks

 

[The_Doc_Man]

IMMEDIATELY RUN DISK DIAGNOSTICS! MAKE A BACKUP OF ALL DATA ON THAT COMPUTER!

You have records from the Windows registry in your database. Your system has a very good chance of being totally corrupted already. Get whatever data you can from it.

Those funky-looking strings are registry key data. They have NO BUSINESS being your DB and can only have gotten there due to a disk failure. The technical name of the problem is "file cross-linking" and it occurs when a file retrieval pointer in a file header gets garbaged, making it look like block X is part of your file when in reality it was block Y. Worse, block X is part of another file. And in your case, the other file is the worst file of all to get corrupted.

 

[Kevin_S]

where is mission2java when I need him!

I'm beginning to be a convert to his principle that Access is not a very good IDE...

Good RAD tool yes... good long-term development environment...?

Sorry Becca for the unfortunite happenings... now might be a good time to pick up a VB or VB.NET intro book!

Gook Luck,
Kev

 

[Becca]

Well after the first heart attack at Doc's caps, the computer seems just fine. I would have been suprised if there was anything wrong with it, I only got the laptop two months ago and so far its been a dream. I've backed up things just in case. But thanks for the warning Doc Man!

As for you Kevin - itsn't it a little blasphemous to be talking about dishing Access in an Access development forum?

 

[dt01pqt]

Your problem, although it is uncommon, is not unheard of and somewhat typical

Ha Ha Ha!! Classic quote

 

[Kevin_S]

As for you Kevin - itsn't it a little blasphemous to be talking about dishing Access in an Access development forum?

I'm sure I'll get struck down by some here but the thruth is that sometimes Access isn't the "one stop solution" many proclaim it to be... Furthermore - although I've only been developing apps in VB.NET for a short time now (and very much still a beginner in that medium) I have never had a corrupt db or had to import objects - type of thing... That to me smells like buggy software...

Now, don't get me wrong as I know there are things that can be done in Access much faster then VB/C but sometimes the longer development time is better if your not dealing with some of the issues as you've run into... BTW I am NOT AN ACCESS HATER I still maintain and develop apps in Access and I credit learning VBA as an excellent intro to VB but I tend to get frustrated with some of the "goings on" with Access...

Good Luck Becca and post back if you need further help!

Kev

 

[The_Doc_Man]

Kevin ain't the only one who slams Access and Microsoft here.

Any time you see my quote about, "remember, after all, that it IS a Bill Gates product" - you can take a mop to the floor to pick up all the sarcasm dripping from that statement.

Access, Word, and Excel are good tools but not perfect tools. Fer instance, the ol' perfessor would gladly drop-kick Word to the nearest dumpster. And I'm not alone. Look at the John C Dvorak column about Word in either this month's or last month's PC Magazine. Word's tables are the bane of my existence. WordPerfect does tables so much better. Word's "frame" concept drives me up the wall. I remove frames every chance I get. Shoot, even old WordStar for Windows wasn't bad...

But when it comes to making a table of contents, Word actually does it right. And in the US goverment (where I happen to work), a table of contents is nearly mandatory. Besides which, I'm not allowed to be the maverick when I write up various operational and security procedures. It's Word, pencil & paper, or I have to hire a personal amanuensis.

So just 'cause I have to use the products doesn't mean I have to like them a lot and doesn't mean that I have any product loyalty. On the other hand, many (MANY) years ago, I used a DOS database product that was pretty good. But when I upgraded to Windows, that database's Windows version was a crock. Their GUI was eeewwweey! (Say that so it kinda rhymes.) They screwed the pooch in the conversion from DOS to Windows, which is when I tried Access 2.0 - and it was GREAT! (In a relative way, of course.)

I won't name names but let's just say that it is paradoxical to me that this particular DB doesn't work better. Not that I'm naming names or anything like that, and it remains one man's opinion. But they hid too much and kept me from seeing things I needed to see when I needed to see them.