Unrecognized Database Format

[Ian Wright]

I created a Database that has been running fine for some years. Sure I've added bits to it, the odd field. pushbutton etc and all was fine until ... when I press a button to open a form I get an error message:

Unrecognized Database Format (file path)

I have tried to use the "Compact and repair button from the ribbon but get the same error.

I have looked at the help but it's meaningless to me.

Does anyone have an idea what caused it? What the best place to look to fix it?

I am tempted to make a new database and import the information into it but naturally don't want to go to the time and effort if I can fix it.

Many thanks in advance for any help you can give.

Kind regards, Ian

 

[ypma]

Ian, if it is a split database try compact and repair on the back end as the error is pointing to the path connection . Just a thought .

Regards Ypma

 

[gemma-the-husky]

Ian

Before you do anything, copy your databases. This sounds like a corruption, and you can easily make it worse, so take a copy before trying anything.

A database can't exceed 2Gb. If it does, it will become unuseable. Check that possibility.

If you can, create a new database, and try to import the data into the new database. That may solve it, although you may well find you are unable to do that.

If you are talking about the front end, with forms, code, and so on - then do you have a back up you can revert to?

It's probably a bit late if you haven't, but this highlights the importance of retaining backups.

 

[Ian Wright]

Hi YPMA and Gemma,

Thank you both for your kind replies. I have to confess that I didn't back up before minor changes, more fool me!

It looks like the best way will be to create a new database and copy each table, form, enquiry, report across, doing a compact and repair until I find the culprit.

Any idea what sort of thing causes this? I am pretty sure it's not 2GB.

Thanks again

 

[AccessBlaster]

Maybe you tried to open a copy on a different version of Access?

This might have happened if you attempted to open the database in an earlier version of Access (but the database was created in a later version).

 

[jon_R]

The error "Unrecognized Database Format" simply means the database file is corrupt. Since you've already tried the Compact and Repair tool with no luck, this means corruption is quite severe. Did you give a try to JetComp.exe utility? It's a freeware tool provided by Microsoft to fix corrupt database. Also, you can try to import the corrupt database into the new database. But if nothing works for you, a professional recovery tool is the only solution you're left with.

 

[gemma-the-husky]

Hi YPMA and Gemma,

Thank you both for your kind replies. I have to confess that I didn't back up before minor changes, more fool me!

It looks like the best way will be to create a new database and copy each table, form, enquiry, report across, doing a compact and repair until I find the culprit.

Any idea what sort of thing causes this? I am pretty sure it's not 2GB.

Thanks again

bit in bold.

not specifically, but a database file must be a pretty complex beast, to be able to resolve all the tables, queries, forms, other objects, and all the data as well, into what we see as a nice orderly structure. It probably only needs one pointer somewhere in the file to get written incorrectly to corrupt the whole thing. Some errors are fixable, and others not.

because it's corrupt, you may not be able to open the database to pull the objects into a new one. Good luck.

If you can't get it working, and are happy to pay, then there are some repair services.

try everythingaccess.com.

 

[isladogs]

Before you try copying all objects into a new database, its also worth trying decompiling as this can sometimes recover databases which are reported as unrecognised. As others have already said, do make a backup first.

 

[abhisheksachdeva]

After much struggle with this same issue I was able to solve the problem by installing the 32 bit version of the 2010 Access Database Engine. For some reason the 64bit version generates this error...

 

[The_Doc_Man]

Please note the dates on some of these posts - they are "old news" by now. But thanks for your helpful attitude! And you never know when your insight might help someone else seeing help on this topic, so your efforts were not wasted.