Repairing an Access 97 database file

J

Jerry Sadilek

Hi everyone,

Should repairing an Access 97 database be done only sparingly, or can it be
done often, even if no specific problem is detected?

Would the response to this question only apply to Access 97 files, or later
versions as well?

Thanks.
 
T

Tom Wickerath

Hi Jerry,

I think I remember hearing that doing unnecessary repair operations in Access 95 could cause
problems. I don't know if the same applies to Access 97 as well. I guess you can apply the old
axiom "If it ain't broke, don't fix it".

Starting with JET 3.6, the repair functionality has been combined with compact. Thus, one
performs a "compact and repair" in one procedure when using Access 2000/2002/2003. This should be
done on a regular basis.

Tom
________________________________


Hi everyone,

Should repairing an Access 97 database be done only sparingly, or can it be
done often, even if no specific problem is detected?

Would the response to this question only apply to Access 97 files, or later
versions as well?

Thanks.
 
M

MacDermott

AFAIK, performing a Compact in Access 97 automatically runs a Repair.
I'd suggest compacting regularly, but not repairing unless there's a
specific need.
 
T

Tom Wickerath

Hi MacDermott,

Performing a compact in Access 97 does not automatically run a repair. See the "Access objects
compact process" and "Repair process" paragraphs in the "Compacting the Database" Gem Tip.
Compacting and repairing are separate processes in Access 97 and earlier versions.

http://www.Access.QBuilt.com/html/gem_tips.html#Compacting

I agree with your suggestions to compact regularly and repair only if there is a specific need.

Tom
_________________________________


AFAIK, performing a Compact in Access 97 automatically runs a Repair.
I'd suggest compacting regularly, but not repairing unless there's a
specific need.
 
M

MacDermott

Well, it's been several years, and I'd certainly agree that Access 97
presents Compact and Repair as two separate processes.
One time when I was dealing with some repetitive corruption issues (and
compacting my databases daily), I'm pretty sure someone with close ties to
Microsoft (I don't recall exactly who now - I could guess at a couple of
names, but it wouldn't be fair to the ones I guessed wrong) told me that
Compact actually also did a Repair; it was just that Repair didn't do a
Compact.)
Which certainly doesn't affect the advice to the OP, which we seem to
agree on.

One more item on the article you referenced:
It says A97 and previous versions had Compact and Repair as separate
utilities. I never worked with A97, and my experience with A2.0 is shrouded
with even more cobwebs than the A97, but my memory of being quite aware that
A97 separated Compact and Repair leads me to suspect that they were combined
in A2.0 as well.

HTH
- Turtle
 
D

Douglas J. Steele

I don't have my list of common responses here at work, so I can't find it,
but yes, unnecessary repairs in Access 97 can lead to corruption.

While it doesn't specifically mention corruption,
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=279334 explicitly states "IMPORTANT: Run
the Repair Database command only when the Microsoft Jet database engine
returns an error message indicating that the Repair should be run. The
Repair Database command should not be run under any other circumstances."
 
T

Tom Wickerath

Thanks Doug. I thought I had seen such a warning before, but I wasn't sure where I had come
across it.

Tom
_________________________________


I don't have my list of common responses here at work, so I can't find it,
but yes, unnecessary repairs in Access 97 can lead to corruption.

While it doesn't specifically mention corruption,
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=279334 explicitly states "IMPORTANT: Run
the Repair Database command only when the Microsoft Jet database engine
returns an error message indicating that the Repair should be run. The
Repair Database command should not be run under any other circumstances."

--
Doug Steele, Microsoft Access MVP

(No private e-mails, please)

_________________________________


Hi Jerry,

I think I remember hearing that doing unnecessary repair operations in Access 95 could cause
problems. I don't know if the same applies to Access 97 as well. I guess you can apply the old
axiom "If it ain't broke, don't fix it".

Starting with JET 3.6, the repair functionality has been combined with compact. Thus, one
performs a "compact and repair" in one procedure when using Access 2000/2002/2003. This should be
done on a regular basis.

Tom
________________________________


Hi everyone,

Should repairing an Access 97 database be done only sparingly, or can it be done often, even if
no specific problem is detected?

Would the response to this question only apply to Access 97 files, or later versions as well?

Thanks.
 
6

'69 Camaro

Hi.
Access 97
presents Compact and Repair as two separate processes.
Click to expand...
told me that
Compact actually also did a Repair; it was just that Repair didn't do a
Compact.)
Click to expand...

True -- today, at least. Compact and repair weren't combined into a single
command in Access 97 when it was released. Nor were they combined in any of
the service releases (SR-2b was the last). One of the last service packs
for Jet (in Jet 3.5 SP-3, I believe) added this improved compaction utility
to Jet 3.51. Folks who used Access 97 and then jumped into Access 2000 as
soon as it came out don't remember having a combined compact/repair process
in Access 97, because they didn't. And relevant documentation wasn't
updated for a long time either (Microsoft's documentation said these were
two processes -- never mentioning that they had already been combined in Jet
3.51 -- long after 11 Oct. '99, when Jet 3.5 SP-3 was issued), so while it
appears now that Access 97 has _always_ had the combined compact/repair
process, it ain't so. Please see the following MS KB article for the
relevant info on Jet 3.51:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?id=172733
my memory of being quite aware that
A97 separated Compact and Repair leads me to suspect that they
were combined in A2.0 as well.
Click to expand...

It's difficult to find documentation on compacting and repairing for Access
2.0, but here's a Microsoft KB article about creating a macro for Access 1.x
and 2.0 that executed a repair subcommand from Database Utilities, then a
compact subcommand, because these processes weren't a combined operation
back then:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?id=100923

HTH.

Gunny

See http://www.QBuilt.com for all your database needs.
See http://www.Access.QBuilt.com for Microsoft Access tips.

(Please remove ZERO_SPAM from my reply E-mail address, so that a message
will be forwarded to me.)
 
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