Do I upgrade Access '97

[Kim]

I am responsisible for the maintenance of a number of Access '97 databases. I am wondering if there is any benefit to upgrading to any of the newer versions of Access?

I do not need a make work project. I only what to upgrade if there is actually some true value in doing so. Each database has thousands and thousands of records. The information is actually downloaded from one source but is then split into different databases by discipline because Access can not handle all the records being dealt with. Money is an issue. But they are looking towards the future, therefore I am investigating our options. I would love to have a datawarehouse of the information we are downloading - but that is years away - work in the public sector.

Note: Someone already tried to put some of the data into sql server and one of the queries - that does not work in access - but would love to work, took close to 7 hours to run because of the number of records involved. Therefore, I do not feel that SQL server is an option at this time either. But perhaps I am wrong.

The version of access we are using seems to do the job. However, as the complexity of the queries goes up - I am finding that they sometimes do not want to work and I have to create multiple simple queries in order to get the information that I want. I worked with Oracle before this - so I sometimes find this very frustrating! But each system has its' limitations and frustrations!

Any input would be greatly appreciated. If you can suggest any decent books/articles etc - let would be great to!

Kim

 

[Douglas J. Steele]

While Access 2000 and up support MDB files of 2 GB, as opposed to Access
97's 1 GB limit, that doesn't represent a doubling in size, since the newer
versions of Access use Unicode (which uses 2 bytes per text character, as
opposed to the old 1 byte per text character).

Access 97 is one of the most stable versions of Access released, but
unfortunately, according to
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh;[ln];lifeOffice it's
reached the end of its life cycle. That doesn't mean that it won't continue
to work fine for years to come. Just that no fixes will be issued anymore,
plus compatibility with future operating systems is no longer guaranteed.

As to your problem with SQL Server, I suspect that all you did was move the
data to SQL Server, create linked tables and continue using your existing
application. That's usually not the best way of converting. Wherever
possible, you should aim to have the queries run on the server, not on your
desktop. Pass-through queries are the way to go. Unfortunately, the
recordsets generated by pass-through queries aren't updatable, so you need
to redo parts of the application. See whether you can get a copy of Mary
Chipman and Andy Baron's "Microsoft Access Developer's Guide to SQL Server"
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/A...67725/sr=11-1/ref=sr_11_1/103-3782674-3187843


--
Doug Steele, Microsoft Access MVP

(No private e-mails, please)

I am responsisible for the maintenance of a number of Access '97

databases. I am wondering if there is any benefit to upgrading to any of
the newer versions of Access?

I do not need a make work project. I only what to upgrade if there is

actually some true value in doing so. Each database has thousands and
thousands of records. The information is actually downloaded from one
source but is then split into different databases by discipline because
Access can not handle all the records being dealt with. Money is an issue.
But they are looking towards the future, therefore I am investigating our
options. I would love to have a datawarehouse of the information we are
downloading - but that is years away - work in the public sector.

Note: Someone already tried to put some of the data into sql server and

one of the queries - that does not work in access - but would love to work,
took close to 7 hours to run because of the number of records involved.
Therefore, I do not feel that SQL server is an option at this time either.
But perhaps I am wrong.

The version of access we are using seems to do the job. However, as the

complexity of the queries goes up - I am finding that they sometimes do not
want to work and I have to create multiple simple queries in order to get
the information that I want. I worked with Oracle before this - so I
sometimes find this very frustrating! But each system has its' limitations
and frustrations!

Any input would be greatly appreciated. If you can suggest any decent

books/articles etc - let would be great to!

 

[Guest]

-----Original Message-----
I am responsisible for the maintenance of a number of

Access '97 databases. I am wondering if there is any
benefit to upgrading to any of the newer versions of
Access?

I do not need a make work project. I only what to

upgrade if there is actually some true value in doing so.
Each database has thousands and thousands of records. The
information is actually downloaded from one source but is
then split into different databases by discipline because
Access can not handle all the records being dealt with.
Money is an issue. But they are looking towards the
future, therefore I am investigating our options. I would
love to have a datawarehouse of the information we are
downloading - but that is years away - work in the public
sector.

Note: Someone already tried to put some of the data into

sql server and one of the queries - that does not work in
access - but would love to work, took close to 7 hours to
run because of the number of records involved. Therefore,
I do not feel that SQL server is an option at this time
either. But perhaps I am wrong.

The version of access we are using seems to do the job.

However, as the complexity of the queries goes up - I am
finding that they sometimes do not want to work and I have
to create multiple simple queries in order to get the
information that I want. I worked with Oracle before
this - so I sometimes find this very frustrating! But
each system has its' limitations and frustrations!

Any input would be greatly appreciated. If you can

suggest any decent books/articles etc - let would be great
to!

Kim
.

--------------Reply-----------------
My vote is NO.
If it ain't broke, don't fix it.