Recovering a database

[Pat]

We are using Access for a simple database (200
records/year) and someone accidently deleted all the
records in the database. All this information is stored
on a network drive and backed up on a daily basis.
However, when our computer tech person tried to bring back
the old database it just loads the database without any
records (the most recent one w/ the deleted records. Is
there any way to recover this lost database?

 

[Cheryl Fischer]

Ask your tech or network administrator if your backup system for network
drives does "incremental backups"? If it does, try reloading an older
copy of the database.

Otherwise, get in touch with Peter Miller at http://www.pksolutions.com to
inquire whether these records can be restored. You will need to provide him
with a copy of the MDB file.

 

[Guest]

We've tried loading the older copy from the backup tape.
The database seems to be the right size but it shows no
entries (ie the deleted database). The actual file was
deleted yesterday and the backup that was loaded was a
week old.

I'll look into your other otpion. Thank you.

-----Original Message-----
Ask your tech or network administrator if your backup system for network
drives does "incremental backups"? If it does, try reloading an older
copy of the database.

Otherwise, get in touch with Peter Miller at

http://www.pksolutions.com to

 

[Brendan Reynolds \(MVP\)]

If the app is split, with tables in one 'backend' data MDB and queries,
forms and reports in another 'front-end application MDB with links to the
tables (a common design for Access apps) then possibly the application MDB
might have been restored from the backup instead of the data MDB?

 

[Tony Toews]

We've tried loading the older copy from the backup tape.
The database seems to be the right size but it shows no
entries (ie the deleted database).

This problem may have occurred because someone had left the MDB open
at their workstation and had left for the day. The backup software
makes a list of all the files it want's to backup, comes along to the
MDB, discovers it can't open it exclusively and then ignores it and
goes onto the next file. Your backup logs should show this.

In which case a standard blurb follows:

HOW TO: Detect User Idle Time or Inactivity in Access 2000 (Q210297)
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=210297
ACC: How to Detect User Idle Time or Inactivity (Q128814)
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=128814

However we found that the code which runs on the timer event must be
disabled for the programmers. Otherwise weird things start happening
when you're editing code.

Also print preview would sometimes not allow the users to run a menu
item to export the report to Excel or others. So you had to right
click on the Previewed report to get some type of internal focus back
on the report so they could then export it. This was also helped by
extending the timer to five minutes.

The downside to extending the timer to five minutes was if a person
stays in the same form and at the same control for considerable parts
of the day, i.e. someone doing the same inquiries, the routine didn't
realize that they had actually done something. I'll be putting in
some logic sometime to reset this timer whenever they do something in
the program.
Tony

--
Tony Toews, Microsoft Access MVP
Please respond only in the newsgroups so that others can
read the entire thread of messages.
Microsoft Access Links, Hints, Tips & Accounting Systems at
http://www.granite.ab.ca/accsmstr.htm

 

[Tony Toews]

Ask your tech or network administrator if your backup system for network
drives does "incremental backups"?

But I don't think this is applicable in this situation. "Incremental
backups" are for files that have changed since the last total backup.
But, by definition as soon as you add or change a record the entire
MDB has it's date/time changed.

BTW I abhor incremental backups because people never quite understand
how they work and they forget to do that main backup on a regular
basis and/or they wipe out that main backup as part of their daily
cycle. Better to do the whole backup every night.

Tony
--
Tony Toews, Microsoft Access MVP
Please respond only in the newsgroups so that others can
read the entire thread of messages.
Microsoft Access Links, Hints, Tips & Accounting Systems at
http://www.granite.ab.ca/accsmstr.htm