Converting 97 to 2000 problems

[David]

I tried to convert this 97 database to 2000 and the
conversion failed. I got a message "The report name 'name'
you entered in either the property sheet or macro is
mispelled or refers to a report that doesn't exist"

Some things I discovered:

This is a split database, some of the links point to
tables that do not exist in the data portion.

Some of the linked tables are themselves linked in the
data postion (is this ok?). Some of these linked tables
point to folders that don't exist.

The data portion contains many tables that are not linked
to at all.

The are are many reports that refer to queries/tables that
do not exist.

In short, this database is a mess. My question is what
caused the specific error I received, and do any of these
invalid references present a problem. Is there any way
that Access can list unresolved references?

 

[John Nurick]

Hi David,

The following links should help; other comments inline.

Access 2.0 and Access 97 to Access 2000/2003 conversion
issues/problems/bugs:
http://www.granite.ab.ca/access/conversionproblems.htm

Conversion to Access 2002 or 3:

http://support.microsoft.com/?id=319400

Conversion to Access 2000:
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=237313

I tried to convert this 97 database to 2000 and the
conversion failed. I got a message "The report name 'name'
you entered in either the property sheet or macro is
mispelled or refers to a report that doesn't exist"

Some things I discovered:

This is a split database, some of the links point to
tables that do not exist in the data portion.

Presumably they once existed, or exist elsewhere. Are they used by any
queries or referred to elsewhere?

Some of the linked tables are themselves linked in the
data postion (is this ok?). Some of these linked tables
point to folders that don't exist.

AFAIK you can't link to a linked table.

The data portion contains many tables that are not linked
to at all.

There are several possible reasons for this.

- they may be lookup tables used for data validation (e.g. limiting the
values people can enter in fields in other tables). If so, they will be
related to other tables in the back end (data portion).

- they may be the originals of tables that have been copied to the front
end rather than linked. Sometimes developers do this to reduce the
number of linked tables and therefore of network traffic. In that case,
expect to find the same tables in the front end too.

- the front end may access the data in some other way .

- sometimes, one back end file may be used by more than one different
front end (e.g. one department may use an order-taking application,
another a job-scheduling one and a third an invoicing system - all
sharing the same back end). Each front end only links to the tables it
needs.

- and of course they may be "fossils" left over from an early stage of
development.

The are are many reports that refer to queries/tables that
do not exist.

In short, this database is a mess. My question is what
caused the specific error I received, and do any of these
invalid references present a problem. Is there any way
that Access can list unresolved references?

There's no built-in tool. I use Speed Ferret to search for things;
others have recommended Rick Fisher's "Find and Replace"; and the most
powerful of them all seems to be Total Access Analyzer from FMSInc.