Best practices for maintaining a database

[Steven Rosaria]

What are the best practices for maintaining a database?
I've worked on a database which has all queries, forms,
reports, and macros defined in one .mdb file; the tables
are linked to a separate file to minimize the effects of
file corruption. Still, database corruption has occurred a
number of times and although the files were restored from
backups, data has been lost. The way the database is set
up is that about 20 clients connect to it on a network;
the data file is about 20 MB and the file with the
queries, forms, etc. is about 33 MB.
Are there any guidelines on how best to guard against
failures, is this setup appropriate for this particular
application?

 

[Ken Snell]

It sounds as if you've properly split the database into a backend (tables)
and a frontend (everything else). However, it appears that you multiple
people using the same copy of the frontend database at the same time. This
can lead to corruption problems.

Give each person his/her own copy of the frontend file and things should
work better. Then, each person is using his/her own frontend (no sharing of
the exact same file), but they continue to share/use the same backend file.

 

[Albert D. Kallal]

It sounds like you got things quite good.

The only thing to check is to make sure that EACH work station has a copy of
the front end. Also, as a preference, that front end should be a mde.

Assuming the above is correct, then the next things are check is things like
users re-setting their pcs, killing ms-access with the task manager.
Incorrect power downs. General bad users stuff like this can really bite
ms-access.

However, make sure each station has that mde (front end). And, then check
out:

http://www.granite.ab.ca/access/corruptmdbs.htm

The above is really the best list of things to check....

Good luck!