access security turn off?

[G]

ok have a few problems. my psych is working on some hoping you can do rest,
home pc not hooked up to network.
running access 02
installed through office xp
tried to open a new data base, constantly getting messages stating:
Work Group adminstrator couldn't create the workgroup information file. Make
sure you have specified a valid path and file name(.. i did), that you have
adequate permissions to create file( i do, logged in as admin), and that you
have enough disk space on the destination drive(..65gig) error code (-3100)

then the next error message states:
Access couldn't find file 'filepath/system.mdw'. tis file is needed for
startup.
perfomed a search for that file couldn't find it. went to access- workgruops
admin- create to try and make one nothing happened.. i'm stuck any suggestions

 

[Rick Brandt]

ok have a few problems. my psych is working on some hoping you can do rest,
home pc not hooked up to network.
running access 02
installed through office xp
tried to open a new data base, constantly getting messages stating:
Work Group adminstrator couldn't create the workgroup information file. Make
sure you have specified a valid path and file name(.. i did), that you have
adequate permissions to create file( i do, logged in as admin), and that you
have enough disk space on the destination drive(..65gig) error code (-3100)

then the next error message states:
Access couldn't find file 'filepath/system.mdw'. tis file is needed for
startup.
perfomed a search for that file couldn't find it. went to access- workgruops
admin- create to try and make one nothing happened.. i'm stuck any suggestions

On a WinXP box this would usually indicate that the Windows user profile
currently logged in has insufficient authority to create a file where Access is
attempting to create it. Are you logged is as someone with "Admin" authority
(in Windows that is, not Access).

 

[G]

On a WinXP box this would usually indicate that the Windows user profile
currently logged in has insufficient authority to create a file where Access is
attempting to create it. Are you logged is as someone with "Admin" authority
(in Windows that is, not Access).

Yes. and every program in office i functioning properly. only access is
showing problems. feeling it's something simple but can't put my finger on
it. was hoping Access would work out of the box for single user. I gotta have
some type of varable cus
ing this to not allow me in..

 

[Rick Brandt]

Yes. and every program in office i functioning properly. only access
is showing problems. feeling it's something simple but can't put my
finger on it. was hoping Access would work out of the box for single
user. I gotta have some type of varable cus
ing this to not allow me in..

I feel you're not grasping what I was getting at. If Access cannot find
System.mdw at startup it will create a new one. Your error is saying that
Access is not able to create this file in the location where it wants to. The
only plausible reason I can thnk of is because YOU do not have adequate
permissions to that location on your hard disk.

So I ask again, are you currently logged into Windows as an administrator or
with some other profile that has lesser permissions? If you log on as an
administrator then Access should be able to create the file and all should be
good after that.

 

[G]

I feel you're not grasping what I was getting at. If Access cannot find
System.mdw at startup it will create a new one. Your error is saying that
Access is not able to create this file in the location where it wants to. The
only plausible reason I can thnk of is because YOU do not have adequate
permissions to that location on your hard disk.

So I ask again, are you currently logged into Windows as an administrator or
with some other profile that has lesser permissions? If you log on as an
administrator then Access should be able to create the file and all should be
good after that.

Yes i am logged in as a admin user on windows. So you are saying everytime
access starts up it will create a system.mdw if one is not present.. is there
a default location that it will send it to.. ?

 

[Rick Brandt]

Yes i am logged in as a admin user on windows. So you are saying
everytime access starts up it will create a system.mdw if one is not
present.. is there a default location that it will send it to.. ?

Not every time, only in cases where the file does not already exist. It should
have been created when it was installed. Where it tries to create it varies by
version. Access 97 would look for it in System32. I thought Acces 2000 wold
use the Office folder, but I'm not sure.

Try doing a repair install of Office. It's available from the help menu of all
of the Office apps.

 

[SalSolo]

I just got the same error and I am logged in as admin on the XP box. All
office applications except Access are working fine. Everything should be ok.

The problem started when the user reported that he could not open an
existing file. When he tried a pop-up appeared just stating "unknown".
As I could not fix that I used the repair function and then I got the "Work
Group adminstrator couldn't create the workgroup information file. Make
sure you have specified a valid path and file name"
Only thing I could see that the user had done was installing SUN java. That
has been removed but the error is still the same (and I have other systems
where it works fine with java)

I figured someting had gone terrible wrong with the installation, so the
entire office installation has been uninstalled and reinstalled...still same
error.

Any ideas?

 

[TC]

Have you followed each & every one of the suggestions that Rick gave in
this thread?

TC

 

[TC]

Um, I guess that just means, did you try the Repair install?

Can you see any system.mdw files anywhere?

TC

 

[SalSolo]

Yes, I tried first a detect and repair and when that did not work I did a
complete uninstall and install of the entire office package.
The file is nowhere to be seen but the system registry has an entry with a
path to it. It seems that the installations think it exists and when it
cannot be found it cannot handle it.
Shold I try to delete the registry entry with the path? Will that accomplish
anything?

SalSolo

 

[SalSolo]

Additional info:
I just tried creating a new .mdw file through the workgroup administrator.
No matter what I try in there I get the same error. It will not create a new
workgroup file.
I tried different locations (different drives) but same result.

It must be some sort of corrupted registry key as a complete reinstall does
not help.
Only question is which?

SalSolo

 

[John Slattery]

Logged on to Windows as the user attempting to create the MDW, can you
create other files, say a text file with Notepad, in the directories in
which you are attempting to create the MDW?

 

[SalSolo]

Yes, I have tested with txt-files, excel-files and word-files...only Access
files have problems.

SalSolo

 

[TC]

Personally I would not delete the registry key. AFAIK, Access can deal
with the file being absent, but I doubt that it would be happy if that
key was absent.

Let me recap what we know. Any attempt to run workgroup administrator
is rejected with the message "cannot create workgroup file" or
somesuch. But you /can/ create /other/ files using other programs such
as Notepad. Correct?

Here's what I'd do.

First, review the registry key to remember precisely what name &
location it gives for the workgroup file. Then close regedit & try to
create a file of that exact same name in that exact same location,
using Notepad or whatever. This should uncover any problems with that
name or location specifically.

If that works, grab a copy of RegMon and FileMon (2 excellent free
products) from www.sysinternals.com. Start by using RegMon (very
simple) to moditor the registry access when you run the workgroup
administrator. Look at the keys accessed & what error codes (if any)
are returned.

If you get no clues there, try FileMon & look for accesses to the
workgroup pathfilename, and check those return codes.

/Surely/ that would indicate something ...

Keep us posted,
HTH,
TC

 

[SalSolo]

Ok, I tried creating a dummy file called system.mdw in 2 locations.
The location found from registry:
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\1033\system.mdw
This made no difference at all.
Then I created one in the location specified by Access when the error appears
documents & settings\%user%\application Data\Microsoft\Access\system.mdw
When that file was created, the error changed in Access:
Cannot open the microsoft jet workgroup information file when file created
in user location.
When removed again the old error returned.

I tried monitoring with regmon but I must admit I could not interpret half
of it I managed to reduce the entried to about 400 lines to go through but
it does not reveal anything that just screams at me.

I then tried Filemon and that gave a bit more. It looks like it detects that
the file system.mdw does not exist so it tries to write a new one.
The weird part is that there is no error..it looks like the operation
completes succesfully but the file never comes into existence.

I guess that this actually means we found the problem ..now is just how
to resolve it.
As I see it Access tries to create the file system.mdw and it thinks it has
done it when trying to access it. But for some reason the file is never
created so then Access has no clue how to handle it as I thinks it just
created it.
Could it be that Access has no rights to write on the drives? How to check
that/remedy it?

 

[TC]

Well, you've got me with this one. :-(

Could you maybe post the relevant parts of the regmon & filemon logs?
I'd like to see all the regmon entries from the workgropup admin
program (you can easily filter for entries), & all the filemon entries
for the "non created" mdw file. I sure can't guarantee to find an
answer there, but I am out of ideas as to anything else.

I do know that files can be created with a "temporary file" bit set, &
the operating system will delete those files as soon as they are
closed; also you can put "delete this file on next reboot" entries in
the registry; but I can't see any of that being likely causes here.

If you can't post the entries in this newsgroup due to space
restrictions or whatever, put them on a website or binary newsgroup
where I can see them. Obviously you would also want to scan them for
confidential information that you do not want to have on eht web.

Sorry I can't respond quicker; I only get on the web once a day.

Cheers,
TC

 

[SalSolo]

Don't worry about the response time...it suits me perfectly
I do not have time for it tomorrow but I will probably put it on a website
on friday. When I do, I'll post a link to it.

Thanks for all the input so far.

SalSolo

 

[TC]

No probs. Hoping to help you fix it in due course!

TC

 

[SalSolo]

Sorry, it took a bit longer
You should be able to access the logs on http://access.salsolo.dk

There is a filemon log and 2 regmon logs taken on 2 different days.
I hope you will be able to see something

SalSolo

 

[TC]

Ok, I'll take a look in the next 2 hours & see if I can see anything.
It's an intriguing problem, hopefully we will get an answer.

TC