Experienced opinion wanted

MCantu

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My employer had used Access 97 to store a database for a consumer relations department.
The database crashed often, would not let more then 10 users in at once without crashing again.
It held thousands and thousands of records, and bogged down horribly

The entire database corrupted when someone sneezed, and it was generally hated.

I have had a few ’97 databases corrupt on me before.

We have had Access 200 for a few years now.

I have not had a database corrupt on me yet… but management is fearful of using it.


I have not tried numerous users in my access 2000. I will need 25 people in it at a time.

I was given the go ahead to roll out my access database to replace the nasty excel spreadsheet they were using.

(I am also getting sick of uploading them to run reports in access)

I was adding the users 1 at a time. So far so good.

Until yesterday

Yesterday, 1 record in a table in my new database corrupted. (not the whole database)

I used a query to auto populate information based upon another entry.

It was pulling info from a linked table from another access database on a shared network drive.


I need to decide if access will be able to pull the weight of 25 people’s data entry.
This corrupted record concerned me, because it shut the function of the entire database down. (on my day off no less!)

Here are my questions :


On access 2000:

1.)What is the highest number of users at once that you have ever seen?
2.)Would a query cause corruption more then VB dlookup? (Which I haven’t used, but I can learn)
3.)What practices and designs are the most common causes for database corruption? (Best practices please)

4.) Is there a way I can work about 1 corrupt record without shutting down everyone?
(All of their data was feeding into 1 table)

Thanks for your input!
-M
 
1) 20 - others here have reported no problems with larger numbers. I think the key is network speed, free space, and splitting the be.
2) select queries don't cause corruption.
3) Your question is confusing so I'm going to list the good practices that minimize the potential for corruption.
. Split the db into fe and be. This minimizes the time that the be is actually open and so reduces the possibility of corruption.
. Store the fe locally
. Compact on a regular basis
. Instruct users on proper db shut down procedure
. Make certain that the drive where the db is located has free space equal to at least double the size of the db. And if it is that close, you're asking for corruption problems.
. Make sure that your network connection is stable. A lost network connection is likely to corrupt the db.
. Corruption bugs regarding individual records usually revolve around memo fields. Separate memo fields into their own tables to minimize the impact of corruption.
. Moving the db's directory as high in the tree as possible will reduce access time to the db for some versions of network operating systems.
4) I don't know of any. I rebuild the table copying the set of records before and then after the corrupt record.
 
I'll give it a shot. I think the front end back end is a great idea
I have everything shoved together
Thanks
 
20 to 40 users no problem

Hello there

I have an access 2000 DB wihich is handeling 20 to 40 users on daily basis flawlesly using the same techniques that hartman just mentioned.. and it workes great.
fe be is an essential and if you can distribute some mde to users that are not in your network location this will take some load of the server the database is on and will run all code and queries locally on users computers and will only use the be for data operations which in turn will emprove your db performance and minimize any expected downtime (corruption). again make sure to backup your DB on daily basis just in case.
 
Pat Hartman said:
1) ...... Instruct users on proper db shut down procedure.......

I have searched for the proper shut down procedure and have only found this one reference. What is the proper procedure?
 
It depends on your database. With most databases, pressing the close button at the top right of the Access window will suffice. For some applications that don't do proper error trapping, they might require that the application specific close button be used so that some cleanup code can be run before the db is actually closed.

Improper methods -
Power off
Reboot
Using the Task manager to force close an application
Disconnecting from the network if the fe or be is on the network.
 

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