Table contents has vanished!

S

Stu

Hi,

I have created a quotation database where I have related tables. One of
these tables is 'Customer Details', which contains name and address etc.

A user was entering in a new customer, went away from their PC but on return
could not find the last customer that was entered, and then discovered that
all of the customers shown in the form had gone. Apparently they did not see
any message box warning of subsequent deletions, 'they just vanished'.

I have looked at the actual 'Customer Details' table and it is completely
empty.

Does anyone know what may have caused the data to disappear? Is this a known
problem? Is the user 'yanking my chain?'

I'm attempting to gather more precise info' from the user.

Any insight would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Stu
 
J

Jeff Boyce

Stu

(First and foremost -- do you have a backup?!)

(Secondly, if you don't have a backup, have you checked into data recovery
services -- costly, but ...?!)

Does the data reside on the user's PC, or is it in a "back-end" on a network
server? If network, does the network keep a backup?

I haven't run into all the rows being deleted from a table except by
deliberate action. But if I leave my PC (exposed), did I delete them or did
someone else?

Does your form have a way to select a record (a property of the form) and
hit <Delete>?

Good luck!

Jeff Boyce
<Access MVP>
 
S

Stu

Thanks for your reply Jeff.

The backup question is the first I asked of the user. And guess what? (if
only).

As for as data recovery is concerned, it's not thousands of records so it
will probably just come down to manual re-entry, but I will look into that
just out of curiosity.

The network backup could be a good place to explore. I cannot remember where
it's installed but I do know that there is a network backup. I'll look into
that with the user.

As far as I can see, the only way that the user can delete records is from
the menu bar, where they can select all records and then delete. Even then a
message box would be shown to confirm the actions. The fact that someone
else may have tinkered with the system is interesting and I will (tactfully)
suggest that.

The form has no delete function assigned to it. This is to protect the user
from himself.

It is strange that all rows have been deleted and I thought that it would
not be such a fundamental problem with Access.

Jeff thanks for your time. I'll investigate these areas that you suggested
and get to the bottom of it.

Stu
 
J

Jeff Boyce

Stu

It sounds like you've tried to keep the user from hurting himself. I'm not
sure I would characterize the capability of deleting all rows as a
"fundamental problem", any more than I would so characterize the possibility
that someone might cut off their fingers with a table saw... <g>

Good luck

Jeff Boyce
<Access MVP>
 
S

Stu

Found the issue...

The user selected Ctrl-A and Del, thinking that he would only delete one
record. Also the warning message box was not being shown.

I've now switched on transaction confimation dialogs!

Thanks for your help, Jeff.
 
J

Jeff Boyce

You're welcome.

(I try to minimize how many dialogs I present, but I invariably display the
one that says "You are about to delete 5,000 rows from your database! Are
you sure? <g>")

Jeff Boyce
<Access MVP>
 
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