Unable to open my Access 2003 DBs

[Dinahlee]

Like an idiot, I was recently foolish enough to install Office 2007 - but at
no time did I open Access 2007 or any of my 2003 DBs. After a two-day fight
with 2007, I uninstalled and reverted to 2003. Fine - except that now I can't
open my Access DBs, even though I created them and SHOULD be the "owner".
Properties show I should be able to open, manipulate, etc., these files - but
can't. Any suggestions?

Thanks.

 

[Larry Daugherty]

Microsoft's installs are predatory and will delete prior versions
unless you specifically tell it not to do it. If you uninstalled
without difficulties it *should* have restored things to their state
before the install. In my lexicon, *shud* is a four letter word.


So the first thing to try might be to Search for MSACCESS.EXE

If it shows up in its proper place, try Repairing Office/Access 2003
via the Control Panel. If that doesn't work then an uninstall will
probably fail too.

Your registry may need cleaning.

HTH

 

[Dinahlee]

'Predatory' doesn't even begin to describe it! I DID specifically tell it not
to delete previous versions. I might as well have asked Donald Trump for a
lesson on business ethics. And no, the uninstall/re-install didn't do it
either.

But I digress.

Access.exe (or whatever) appears to be where it belongs...I can open the
program, create new DBs, etc. - just can't get to the old (important!) ones.
I'm think of slitting my wrists, but it's almost the weekend...maybe Monday.
In the meantime, the search for a solution will continue. Thanks for the post.

 

[Larry Daugherty]

Most likely, your file associations have been trashed by the install.

Try opening various types of office documents by clicking them from
Windows Explorer. I found Word wouldn't make the association
correctly but, after using Folder Options and associating ".doc" and
".dot" with Winword.exe it seemed to recover. Doing the same thing
with Access didn't help at all.

However, I did a cleanup of the Registry and things got better. While
the Registry cleaner utility I was using at the moment seemed to do a
great job there were issues with the lease price of $20 per year and
their awarding themselves an order for more than I requested. There
is a promised refund in the works but I expect to opt out of the whole
thing.

Even before you clean the registry (Do Make Backups of the Registry or
take a Checkpoint) you may be able to open Access and open recent
files from the File | Open list. If the file you want is no longer in
the list (I always max out my list) then you can navigate to the file
you want and get it that way.

I haven't done a thorough investigation for any lingering traces of
Office 2007 but all seems to be well at the moment.

You might google on "Registry cleaner" and evaluate the hits you get.

Since the bygone days of DOS, I haven't considered myself to be a
"systems person". For really serious help you might try one of the
Windows newsgroups.

HTH