A Quick Guide to Repairing Damaged MDB Files

If you are working with valuable data in your Access database, you are better off taking regular backups of your databases. This way, even if there is any problem with the original database, you can be confident of being able to restore the database from your backup copy. However, before you give up on the original database, if the damage is limited, you could run the Compact and Repair utility inbuilt in Microsoft Access to repair the MDB files. Only if this proves unsuccessful should you try to restore the database from your backup copy. Sometimes, of course, the Repair utility proves unsuccessful and your backup copy too may have become corrupted leaving tools such as Advanced Access Repair from DataNumen as your last resort for MDB recovery.

 

We will quickly outline the steps that you need to take to properly repair damaged MDB files.

·        Before you carry out any major task, always make sure that you have a backup copy of the latest version of the database.

·        Now if the database that you would like fixed is open, close it or request the user who has it open to close it.

·        Proceed to the Tools menu, from where you can go to Database Utilities and from there, go to Compact and Repair Database.

·        This will immediately bring up a Database to Compact dialog box. Select the file that you suspect is damaged and then click on Compact to start the process. You will now be shown the Compact Database Into dialog box. You can now enter a new database name and click on Save. This should start the compact and repair process, which should save the new restored version under the new file name that you have indicated.

 

If the MDB recovery proves unsuccessful, you will be shown a message indicating that the process was not able to repair the database. This essentially means that the damage to the file is so severe that the Compact and Repair utility is not able to fix the problems.

 

If you have a backup copy of the database before it got damaged, you can always easily restore the database from this copy and continue working. However, if you find that you have not taken a backup of your database or that the backup too is corrupted you still need not lose hope. Advanced Access Repair is able to carry out fairly deep scans and locate database contents that many other tools are not able to. Since the software supports the Windows Explorer interface, you can easily locate the damaged database and complete the MDB recovery process with just one click of a button.