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Can't open Access database from disk

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9 replies

by stayton_1956

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I have a database saved on a floppy disk.

I recently had Access software downloaded
onto my home computer. (350 MHZ GIG hard
drive, 256 RAM with Windows 98)

My computer opened the Access-database
from the floppy disk at the lab where I had
Access installed.

When I got the computer home it would not
open the database. It says ?Disk or network
error (Error 3043).

It does open the disk, because I have a
picture saved on the same floppy and it will
open.

I have another disk from a class I took in
Access. I can open that at home.

Why will it not open the database now. . . .
when it did open it at the lab?

9 replies

by ricky

Floppy disk problem. Floppies are notorious for this.

The drive at the lab may be newer and able to read a "slicghtly corrupted or media weka" floppy disk. The one at home's not so.

If you can I'd advise you to get your important data off the floppy disk asap. It's gonna die soon.

To try and recover the data (access file) on the disk, run a scandisk (thorough) on it on your home system. may help and may also totally corrupt the access file.

Sue CDs or other more reliable media. Avoid floppies...

HTH.

by tgray

This is, I'm afraid, most likely the correct reason for your problems.

Before CDs and memory sticks became commonplace I had got to the stage where if I needed to bring anything critical with me on floppy disk, I made THREEE copies! Yep, I'd had two copies fail on me, so three it was!

Don't know if it is my imagination or not, but 20 years ago floppies seemed to be more reliable than they are now. Did lower prices bring lower quality, or did we just treat them with more respect back then?!!!!

by blackcurrant

Hi

If you receive an error message when trying to access a floppy disk try the following:

1. Try the disk in another drive

2. Run scandisk to check the disk. If this does not work try Norton Utilities Disk Doctor.

3. Try to copy the files from the floppy in explorer. Press CTRL+A to select all files/folders on the floppy, then click Edit, Copy. Explorer may report that there are errors in one or more files, just click Ignore. Next, try to paste the contents into a folder on your hard drive.

4. Use C:\Windows\Command\Diskcopy.com to transfer the data from one floppy to another. Although errors may be reported, any real errors will be compensated for by the fact a random character will be written to the start of the failed sector that was causing the read error. This will at least enable the data to be read.

Good luck

by pierrejamme

If the data is critica and you find that the disk has become corrupted, i can recommend BAD copy to recover files from a floppy disk. You can download a trial at:
http://www.jufsoft.com/badcopy/
to see it it will work. you'll have to buy it to recover. I bought it first time i tried it.

by sgt_shultz

yeah because if you tried everybody elses sugggestion, you gonna need the bad disk copy util.
take the floppy back to the pc that can read it. right away copy the db file to the hd. then try another floppy. but i think you will find it can't be read at home either. this is mechancial difference between the drive (not weka media imho)
so you may be stuck burning it on cd or using another method besides floppy. see your IT person about getting the floppy drive replaced
if you can't read it, try scandisk to see if it can fix it. you might be hosed. floppy's are terrible ways to store data. very unreliable

by weavexi

i got problems like that everyday
this is what i did to solve the problem
i inserted the floppy to the drive where i used to save my file. make a copy of the file to 3 floppies.
floppies are headaches for me try memory sticks.

if you want other solutions in transporting files please let me know

by tammyhurt_37601

Hello Access does crazy things when trying to move one file to another PC...When you made your floppy on the pc where the Database was.. it made the floopy READ ONLY... you can't write to that at all.
So here is a thought.. go to the place where you have the access stored at right click for propities and make sure the read only isn't check. then download it to floppy.. install on new pc and go change the read only box its the seeting on the permissions that access doesn't like going from one place to the other. good Luck

by otl

Which flavor of Access ? 95, 97, 2000, 2003 ? What are you running at home ?

Would be a major hurdle if lower version at home. Higher version you do not have enough disk space to convert it to a useable format for the newer program. Copy to HD and verify properties are not read only, then open.

Also if it was created with 97 or above you need to be a member of the workgroup it was created under.

Another problem is links to other files/DB's/lib's that were on the network and will not appear on the home PC as it has no access to the original network.

However if it is a higher version trying to open a lower version of access you can spoof it into providing the data for another database. (get external data -> import data). Even though you are not a member of the workgroup you can still get access to the data.

by fyz

I got similar problem recently, the database can't be opened. I found out that the mdb file is damaged by some unknown reason. But I didn't have any backup, I searched on net and tried a tool called Advanced Access Repair and it worked fine. Its homepage is http://www.datanumen.com/aar/ ; somebody says that create a new, empty database. Go to File menu-> Get External Data-> Import. Now you can import every valid table and also give you a clean set of systems tables. But I didn't try yet.

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