Reinstalling Access 97 on a Vista PC

[Chris_Elliott]

About ten years ago, I used started using Access to create a database for I
book I am writing. (Installed from Office 97 Professional Edition.) I just
reinstalled Access every time I got a new PC, and carried on with the
database. Recently, when I got a new computer running Vista, I used LapLink
PC Mover to transfer files and programs across from my old PC. Everything
worked OK for a while, then Windows Vista started encountering major problems,
and eventually, after exhausting all the other options, I had to reformat the
HD and reinstall it. However, when I tried to reinstall Access from the
Office 97 Professional Edition CD, I got a series of error messages with a
Workgroup Administrator heading.

"An error has occurred at changing Workgroup Database."
"Setup couldn't create a SYSTEM.MDW file. After setup is completed, reboot
your computer, then run the Workgroup Administrator before you run this
application. (-1011)

I tried running the Workgroup Administrator, and got two error messages:

"Couldn't find the file c:\windows\system32\system.mdw. This file is required
for startup."
"An error has occurred at changing workgroup database."

I'm now using Open Office, and don't want to upgrade to the latest version of
Microsoft Office Professional just to get a working version of Access, but at
the moment I can't access my own database. Can anyone tell me how to
reinstall Access 97 on a Vista machine, or what to do so that I can open the .
mdb file for my database in another program. (Open Office Base will connect
to it, but only to do very limited editing.)

Thanks in anticipation of help.

 

[Gina Whipp]

Cris,

Since I have never tried loading Access 97 on my Vista machine could not
offer first time experience but I did find this that might help...

http://www.vistax64.com/vista-security/182769-installing-access-97-vista.html

....scroll almost to the bottom to get what Chris Barnes found worked as a
solution.

--
Gina Whipp
2010 Microsoft MVP (Access)

"I feel I have been denied critical, need to know, information!" - Tremors
II

http://www.regina-whipp.com/index_files/TipList.htm

About ten years ago, I used started using Access to create a database for I
book I am writing. (Installed from Office 97 Professional Edition.) I just
reinstalled Access every time I got a new PC, and carried on with the
database. Recently, when I got a new computer running Vista, I used LapLink
PC Mover to transfer files and programs across from my old PC. Everything
worked OK for a while, then Windows Vista started encountering major
problems,
and eventually, after exhausting all the other options, I had to reformat
the
HD and reinstall it. However, when I tried to reinstall Access from the
Office 97 Professional Edition CD, I got a series of error messages with a
Workgroup Administrator heading.

"An error has occurred at changing Workgroup Database."
"Setup couldn't create a SYSTEM.MDW file. After setup is completed, reboot
your computer, then run the Workgroup Administrator before you run this
application. (-1011)

I tried running the Workgroup Administrator, and got two error messages:

"Couldn't find the file c:\windows\system32\system.mdw. This file is
required
for startup."
"An error has occurred at changing workgroup database."

I'm now using Open Office, and don't want to upgrade to the latest version
of
Microsoft Office Professional just to get a working version of Access, but
at
the moment I can't access my own database. Can anyone tell me how to
reinstall Access 97 on a Vista machine, or what to do so that I can open the
..
mdb file for my database in another program. (Open Office Base will connect
to it, but only to do very limited editing.)

Thanks in anticipation of help.

 

[Chris_Elliott]

Thanks for that, Gina. I will try, but it may not work as I no longer have
the System.mdw file to copy, and couldn't create one when I tried using
Workgroup Administrator.

 

[Chris_Elliott via AccessMonster.com]

Hi Gina

Just to let you know that I have cracked it. Turns out that Access 97 can't
work with a machine that has over 1 GB of memory. It can't create system.mdw
on installation, and won't let you create it using Workgroup Administrator.
The solution is to download Service Pack 3 for the Jet database engine in
Access 97, and install it. You can then create the required system.mdw file,
and Access will then run. I can now run my database, and everything seems to
be working fine.

Chris

 

[Gina Whipp]

Chris,

Glad to know you found a solution and thanks for posting back it's sure to
help someone else!

--
Gina Whipp
2010 Microsoft MVP (Access)

"I feel I have been denied critical, need to know, information!" - Tremors
II

http://www.regina-whipp.com/index_files/TipList.htm

Hi Gina

Just to let you know that I have cracked it. Turns out that Access 97 can't
work with a machine that has over 1 GB of memory. It can't create
system.mdw
on installation, and won't let you create it using Workgroup Administrator.
The solution is to download Service Pack 3 for the Jet database engine in
Access 97, and install it. You can then create the required system.mdw
file,
and Access will then run. I can now run my database, and everything seems
to
be working fine.

Chris

 

[Tony Toews [MVP]]

Just to let you know that I have cracked it. Turns out that Access 97 can't
work with a machine that has over 1 GB of memory. It can't create system.mdw
on installation, and won't let you create it using Workgroup Administrator.
The solution is to download Service Pack 3 for the Jet database engine in
Access 97, and install it.

Actually what you really meant was

1) Ensure you have Office 97 SR2 installed. This requires SR1 which
might already be included on your software CD.

2) Installs Jet 3.5 SP3.

Tony
--
Tony Toews, Microsoft Access MVP
Tony's Main MS Access pages - http://www.granite.ab.ca/accsmstr.htm
Tony's Microsoft Access Blog - http://msmvps.com/blogs/access/
For a convenient utility to keep your users FEs and other files
updated see http://www.autofeupdater.com/
Granite Fleet Manager http://www.granitefleet.com/

 

[Chris_Elliott via AccessMonster.com]

Hi Tony

I don't know whether I had Office 97 SR2 installed. I didn't specifically
download it, and the only bit of Office 97 that I tried to reinstall was
Access. It certainly wouldn't do any harm to update Office first, but the
file that I downloaded and ran was Jet35sp3.exe. Hope that clarifies it for
anyone else with the same problem.

Chris

 

[pipelette]

en francais pour que je puissecomprendre merci..