Compact/Repair problem

[element of prime]

Hi,
I'm an amateur Access user, who has built up a dbase of considerable complexity over the years.

Just how amateur I am: I've accidentally clicked on the Compact/Repair button, when I was not intending to do anything of the sort.

The database went white, I got scared and closed it. (Why isn't there a prompt if I really want to do that?)

Now I cannot open it and get the message "File already in use".

Whatta hell is going on here? Is there a way to recover it the way it was before? I'm pretty desperate.

Thanks.

 

[Ranman256]

you shouldnt exit the app while its compacting. you could corrupt it. Compacting is good , but dont stop it.
there should be a BACKUP copy in the same folder that gets created when compacting.
use that.
if that fails, restore from 1 of your backup copies. you do backup regularly right?

 

[element of prime]

Nope, thats why I'm desperate

 

[theDBguy]

Hi. Welcome to AWF!

Have you tried rebooting the computer? Is this is a split database?

 

[AccessBlaster]

Is there a lock file open?

 

[Isaac]

Hi,
I'm an amateur Access user, who has built up a dbase of considerable complexity over the years.

Just how amateur I am: I've accidentally clicked on the Compact/Repair button, when I was not intending to do anything of the sort.

The database went white, I got scared and closed it. (Why isn't there a prompt if I really want to do that?)

Now I cannot open it and get the message "File already in use".

Whatta hell is going on here? Is there a way to recover it the way it was before? I'm pretty desperate.

Thanks.

I agree, they should have a confirmation prompt on that. I put one on any non-trivial thing that's "too easy" to accidentally press.

Anyway - keep in mind for the future that sometimes, depending on the circumstances (like how big the DB is, and whether it connects to a back end on the network over a slow connection), Compact & Repair will take time. I have one database where, for whatever reason, it takes a full half-minute (and this is just a FE, no tables), not only goes white during that time, but prompts me "Do you want to close/wait/report problem" - and I have to even ignore that , which goes away after a few more moments.

In your case, I would:
1) task manager - details - msaccess.exe - highlight it and hit Delete on your keyboard, Yes.
2) delete the file which is in the same folder as your database was that ends in .ldb or .laccdb, if any exists.
3) keep using db as normal.

before this, make sure your File Explorer folder options settings are NOT set to "hide" file extensions (one of the first things to change when you start using a computer for the first time). that also goes for hidden and system files IMO.

 

[element of prime]

There is no lock file to see, so I cannot delete that.

Ok, i'm gonna reboot if that's what the experts are saying...wish me luck.

 

[Isaac]

There is no lock file to see, so I cannot delete that.

Ok, i'm gonna reboot if that's what the experts are saying...wish me luck.

I would check task manager for the exe first, just to save yourself (maybe) the hassle of rebooting.

 

[element of prime]

I've already checked, msaccess.exe isn't running. Rebooting is no use then?

 

[element of prime]

It's worked! Rebooting worked! Real magic does exist.

Thanks everyone for your advice.

Now I'm gonna create a backup, i've learned my lesson for today.

 

[theDBguy]

Rebooting is no use then?

I guess you wouldn't know until you tried. Glad to hear it worked for you. Good luck with your project.

 

[element of prime]

I guess you wouldn't know until you tried. Glad to hear it worked for you. Good luck with your project.

Indeed.
Thanks!

 

[robertopupka]

I also somehow accidentally clicked the "Compact/Restore" button when I had no intention of doing anything like that. After that I decided that it was a problem in my iPad, I did not quite understand what I pressed but what happened was that I had to take my gadget to the iPad unlock service, I do not quite understand what exactly happened to him, but it just stopped working, after that I read that it was just necessary to restart it ...

 

[Cotswold]

There is nothing like losing data to sharpen the mind and create good intentions for the future.

At the very minimum have Odd and Even days backups. Never just one that you overwrite every day. Then if your data becomes corrupted you won't write it over a good copy with bad data. Swop the backup-to device from time to time. Don't backup when an Access Database is in use, because tables in use will be skipped.

Backing up every day year after year, is usually a total waste of time, until that day arrives, and it will. Then backing up elicits nothing but praise and relief.

Old Silicon Valley proverb: You can't be too rich or too thin and you can never have too many backups.
It's all good fun

 

[GPGeorge]

There is nothing like losing data to sharpen the mind and create good intentions for the future.

At the very minimum have Odd and Even days backups. Never just one that you overwrite every day. Then if your data becomes corrupted you won't write it over a good copy with bad data. Swop the backup-to device from time to time. Don't backup when an Access Database is in use, because tables in use will be skipped.

Backing up every day year after year, is usually a total waste of time, until that day arrives, and it will. Then backing up elicits nothing but praise and relief.

Old Silicon Valley proverb: You can't be too rich or too thin and you can never have too many backups.
It's all good fun

One of my clients kept two external hard drives. One stayed in the office and ran daily to back up all important files. The other stayed in the trunk of his car. Every morning he swapped them, car trunk to office, office to car trunk.

The client of one of my friends kept his back ups on the same hard drive as the master database.... You might be able to predict where this is going.
One day he lost that hard drive, taking both the master and all backups with it.

Ironically, the first guy never actually had to use his backups, to my knowledge. The second guy didn't get to use his either, come to think of it.

 

[isladogs]

For several years, I kept my main backups on a separate hard drive.
Unbelievably one day both my main hard drive & the backup drive failed simultaneously!

I did have some files on a secondary backup on a third hard drive
I recovered most of the remaining important files from a combination of locations including my website, forum threads, Dropbox, OneDrive and even, in a few cases, from clients! But that took weeks.
You can never have too many backups!

 

[KitaYama]

One of my clients kept two external hard drives. One stayed in the office and ran daily to back up all important files. The other stayed in the trunk of his car. Every morning he swapped them, car trunk to office, office to car trunk.

The client of one of my friends kept his back ups on the same hard drive as the master database.... You might be able to predict where this is going.
One day he lost that hard drive, taking both the master and all backups with it.

Ironically, the first guy never actually had to use his backups, to my knowledge. The second guy didn't get to use his either, come to think of it.

Where I work, we have a active directory setup with a dedicated file server. All important data goes to a partition on file server. The server has a RAID10 setup to create 2 exact mirrors on 4 drives.
Every 6 hours, a backup software creates a mirror of all shared files to 3 external hard disk and one NAS drive.
Every 12 hours the contents of the file server is mirrored to Dropbox, every 24 hours to Microsoft OneDrive, Every 48 hours to Google Drive.

Are we too cautious?

 

[GPGeorge]

Where I work, we have a active directory setup with a dedicated file server. All important data goes to a partition on file server. The server has a RAID10 setup to create 2 exact mirrors on 4 drives.
Every 6 hours, a backup software creates a mirror of all shared files to 3 external hard disk and a NAS drive.
Every 12 hours the contents of the file server is mirrored to Dropbox, every 24 hours to Microsoft OneDrive, Every 48 hours to Google Drive.

Are we too cautious?

Uh, no.

 

[isladogs]

...Are we too cautious?

Well no, you could still lose up to 6 hours of data with that system!

 

[KitaYama]

Well no, you could still lose up to 6 hours of data with that system!

I don't think so.
maybe you missed the Raid10 section....

RAID 10 consists of a minimum of four drives and combine the advantages of RAID 0 and RAID 1 in one single system. It provides security by mirroring all data on secondary drives while using striping across each set of drives to speed up data transfers. This means that RAID 10 can provide the speed of RAID 0 with the redundancy of RAID 1. You can lose any single drive, and possibly even a 2nd drive without losing any data.