system.mdw

[Mike Quesnel]

After installing MS Office Professional Edition 2003 on my home computer, I
open Access and try to start a new data base. However I keep getting the
following error message:"Workgroup Administrator couldn't create the
workgroup information file. Make sure that you have specified a valid path
and file name, that you have adequate permissions to create the file, and
that you have enough disk space on the destination drive. (-3100)". What this
appears to be telling me is that Access cannot create the system.mdw file. I
have done a search for it and it does not exist in the location it is
supposed to be in. Furthermore, I have no idea what the "Workgroup
Administrator" is as I am using this at home and do not have a workgroup that
I am aware of. I had an earlier edition of MS Office, Office XP, and was able
to access my database files when I had that program.

Any suggestions? How do I get Access to create the mdw file?

 

[Arne]

Mike,
Look at the tools menu for a security menu item. If you find a workgroup
administrator, try to use it.

Arne.

 

[Mike Quesnel]

I've already tried that it I keep getting a message that says I may not have
the necessary permissions. As I understand it, Access should generate a
default "system.mdw" file however it is not doing this. I tried copying
another "system.mdw" file from another computer (Access works fine on that
computer). That at lease got me to the point where could get a database to
open/started but if I tried to enter any data it instantly crashed.

I'm thinking there's something wrong with the program itself (or the program
CD is corrupted) as I have tried reinstalling all of MS Office 2003 as well
as just uninstalling and then reinstalling just Access and it just keeps
doing the same thing.

I'm lost!

 

[Arne]

The wrokgroup administrator has a function to create a new system.mdw. I
would not copy one from another computer.

 

[Immanuel Sibero]

What OS?

I've already tried that it I keep getting a message that says I may not have
the necessary permissions. As I understand it, Access should generate a
default "system.mdw" file however it is not doing this. I tried copying
another "system.mdw" file from another computer (Access works fine on that
computer). That at lease got me to the point where could get a database to
open/started but if I tried to enter any data it instantly crashed.

I'm thinking there's something wrong with the program itself (or the program
CD is corrupted) as I have tried reinstalling all of MS Office 2003 as well
as just uninstalling and then reinstalling just Access and it just keeps
doing the same thing.

I'm lost!

 

[Mike Quesnel]

I'm using MS Windows XP Professional and the version of MS Office I have is
MS Office 2003 Professional.

Per an earlier comment from Arne, I understand that the program should be
generating the system.mdw file however that doesn't appear to happen. When I
do a search, there is no such file on my computer. I tried copying another
system.mdw file just to see if I could get the program to run.

 

[Immanuel Sibero]

Mike,

I'm stumped!
Do you have administrative rights to the computer? Or at least while
installing Office 2003? Did you get an error while installing?

The following has the error message you received but makes no mention of
missing system.mdw. Also it's for A2002.
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;317708

Immanuel Sibero