Unrecognized Database Format ??? (1 Viewer)

[lucour]

Hi,

I am using a database at work that was originally created in Access 97. About a month ago we installed Office 2000 ( now using Access 2K). We are using PC's with Windows 2000 OS's that are hooked up to a Network. The database is split. I have the back-end out on a server, and the front-end's installed locally on the two PC's. When say I am logged on, I am able to open the database fine. But when others are logged on they get "Unrecognized Database Format" when they double click on the desktop shortcut icon. The icon has the yellow key of Access97 even though Access 2000 is installed. As a work around, I open Access 2K as an blank database and then open my .mdb file. I then change the properties of the shortcut icon to show Access 2K. This works fine for awhile, but when the user logs on again sometime down the road the same thing happens.
I have already tried creating a new database from scracth in Access 2K and then importing all of my old objects into it. I thought this did the trick, but the same old thing happened today. The users are getting a bit annoyed. Does anyone have any suggestions ??

Thanks !
"Unrecognized Database Format"

 

[jimbrooking]

Two possibilities I can think of: First possibility: If Access 97 is installed on the user machine in addition to Access 2000, Windows will become confused (bet you find THAT hard to believe!) and will open either 97 or 2K, depending on which of the myriad ways the user finds to try to open the database. One thing, though: after you tweak the user's machine so it opens Access 2000, if the user ever manages to open Access 97, your tweak gets broken, and Windoze will continue to open Access 97 (mostly) until your return trip to redo the tweak.

Two solutions in this case: the easiest, if possible, is to de-install Access 97. That will make the problem go away for good. Second, if there is a need to preserve Access 97 and 2000 on the same machine, set the user up with a shortcut that opens the correct version of Access (use the full path to Access 2000) and add as a command line argument the full path to your Access 2k database.

A second, albeit remote possibility, is that there is a "runtime version" of Access 97 installed on the user PCs. Runtime Access (available with MS Office 97/2000 Developer Edition) can be packaged up with commercial Access database applications so the user of the application does not need to buy Access to use the app. It may not be obvious that this runtime version is installed with the application, and the user wouldn't necessarily have to know s/he was using an Access database. But unless the Runtime is installed properly, the system would encounter and spread confusion such as you describe.

To check either of these possibilities requires a trip to Start>Settings>Control Panel>Add/Remove Programs... You should see if wither Access 97 (or Office 97) or Access 97 Runtime is installed, and act accordingly. Since you are getting a Unrecognized Database Format message, there is enough of Access 97 in the user machine to issue the diagnostic, so you need to do something to get your Access 2K database opened with Access 2K, not Access 97.

HTH,
Jim