Back to work on an old project and greeted with "unrecognized database format" (1 Viewer)

[Jon-G]

Back to work on an old project and greeted with "unrecognized database format"

Today I fired up a front end which I started developing almost two years ago, as we now have a need to finish the project.

I wasn't expecting it to be all plain sailing as since I last worked on it, my development machine and the file server where the back end sits have been replaced and also both have been moved to (the same) completely new domain. Also, the share for the back-end no longer exists.

I was greeted with the very helpful "unrecognized database format" error, so I started troubleshooting, heres what I did:

• Opened the (password protected) back-end DB and checked all tables are present and the data is readable within them.
• Attempted to open the front-end from a different machine on the network running a 32bit version of Office 2010 (as I couldn't remember if I had the 32 or 64bit version on my old development box)
• Checked the permissions of the front-end and back-end files.
• Checked the development machine has all the latest updates for Office
• Tried a Compact & Repair on the front-end (gives "unrecognized database format" error)
• Tried opening various back ups of the front end which all give the "unrecognized database format" error.
• Built a VM with the same machine name and shared folder name as before and copied the back-end db to the share so that the front-end can find the tables via the original UNC path
• Downloaded version 4.2 of Phoenix Stella Access Repair tool, and attempted to scan the front-end which gave a "This file is not a valid MS Access File" message and didn't continue
• Recreated and added myself to the domain security group for the users of the system, which I vaguely remember that I'd coded some checks in to the database to allow access to certain functionality.
• Tried running the Access exe from the command line with the /decompile swith (something I saw recommended on another thread)

All of this to no avail. Now Im at a loss :banghead:

Surely the live file and all the backups cant have been corrupted during the move to the new file server, when the back-end which was copied during the same operation came over unscathed. So Im thinking there is something else afoot.

Im really hoping to be able to recover this as it's 95% complete, a lot of code has gone into it, and Ive told my boss it'll be ready in the next two weeks (based on the fact that it was 95% complete when I put it away).

Here is the info on the systems:

Development machine:
Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 (all patches and updates)
Office 2010 Pro Plus (Version 14.0.6129.5000 64bit) (all patches and updates)

File Server:
Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 (all patches and updates)

Both front-end and back-end databases were created in Access 2010 (however I dont know the exact version)

If anyone can help shed any light on this I will be extremely grateful!

TIA,
Jon

 

[CJ_London]

Re: Back to work on an old project and greeted with "unrecognized database format"

It does matter whether you are using 32bit or 64bit office.

A couple of things to try

Have you recompiled the vba
Are all references present and correct?
Sounds like the backend is OK and you can open it OK so have you tried creating a new empty front end and copied across all objects (except linked tables - better to relink).

 

[Jon-G]

Re: Back to work on an old project and greeted with "unrecognized database format"

Hi CJ,
I tried using the decompile command with a view to recompiling the VBA, but I get hit with the same error. Is there another method of doing this?

With regards to the references, this dev machine is a clean build and I haven't done any development yet on it so its fresh out of the box. I dont recall creating any references on the old one either. How would I know? Can this also cause this problem?

Im not sure how I can copy the objects across to the new one when whichever way I try and open the old front-end I cant get to the point to see what objects it contains?

 

[CJ_London]

Re: Back to work on an old project and greeted with "unrecognized database format"

Sounds like you do have a problem

if you cannot open under 32 or 64 bit office, do you have a backup which works? It may be a bit out of date, but better than nothing - would your IT have a backup of the old server from which the files could be restored?

I don't understand when you say

Im not sure how I can copy the objects across to the new one when whichever way I try and open the old front-end I cant get to the point to see what objects it contains?

but you also say

Tried a Compact & Repair on the front-end (gives "unrecognized database format" error)
I tried using the decompile command with a view to recompiling the VBA,

which implies you were able to open the front end

I presume you are working with an accdb, not accde or accdr?

 

[Jon-G]

Re: Back to work on an old project and greeted with "unrecognized database format"

Hi CJ,
Sorry for the confusion. I have a plethora of daily backups and they all give the same error, which to me makes me think the files are OK.

I also managed to find a VHD backup from the original file server and pulled the 'version in development' file and backups from that, which all took me to the same error.

with regards to the compact & repair operation that I tried, I ran access, and selected the option from the tools menu then pointed it at the accdb file which then caused it to throw my current favourite error once again!

 

[CJ_London]

Re: Back to work on an old project and greeted with "unrecognized database format"

can you create a new db, perhaps the problem is with your installation of access?

If you want to zip up a front end and post to me I can see if I can open it - I use 32bit access 2010.

 

[Jon-G]

Re: Back to work on an old project and greeted with "unrecognized database format"

I did create a new blank DB today with some basic forms and tables just to test out the installation of Access on the dev box, and it worked fine.

Its just dawned on me as well that the machine with the 32bit install of Office that I ran the front-end file on was one that used to run the front-end without problem. That machine was never rebuilt and was just cut over to the new domain.

Thanks for the offer of trying the file for me, but even the front end with no data in gives quite a lot of insight into the structure of the project it supports, and everything is rather hush hush where I work!

Any other avenues you think I could look down?

 

[CJ_London]

Re: Back to work on an old project and greeted with "unrecognized database format"

I'm just about out of ideas at the moment.

It does sound like your front end is corrupted. You could just check the file association is still valid and correct.

Can you confirm you are able to open the front end in design view? i.e. ensure autostart/display form is disabled - it may be some code in here is causing the error? - also if you can open in design view you can go to the vba editor and compile the db from there (under the debug tab). If that works, it implies there is a problem either with one or more of your forms or the links to tables - certainly if the backend has moved and the old path no longer exists it will create a problem.

If you have a plethora of backups, you need to go to the earliest one and work forward - once a file is corrupted, backing it up will back up a corrupted file!

 

[Jon-G]

Re: Back to work on an old project and greeted with "unrecognized database format"

Im now back in the office after a fun few days with food poisoning. Anyway, it looks like the files are all actually corrupt

Its just very strange as they weren't automatic backups. They were copies I made manually daily! Something must have screwed them up when we first virtualised the server and copied them to the VHD, because on both VHDs they all give the same error

Luckily I managed to find a single accdb file in a backup I have of my laptop when I was testing it at some point during the development. Im sure I've lost a good few lines of code, but its still a 1000% better than starting from scratch!

Thanks you CJ for your continued support!