ms access database corrupted, i think

[skisteven1]

I have this problem with access, and I can't think of anything that might cause this problem, much less know what to do about it.

I have a list of donors for our NP organization in a table, with, among other information, ID and Donor ID as two different colomns. As expected, Donor ID is totally sequential, ending at something just over 11,000 (it starts at 5,000 something). ID is also somewhat sequential, other than a few missing numbers, it starts at 1 and proceeds upward.

However, after ID 5561, I'm getting these weird numbers under ID. 5577,6808,6809,5571,5567 ...etc. And then, after about 20 ID's, it starts at 453061612, and continues jumping around in that number range -- always starting with 45306. Interspersed with the really huge numbers are "regular" numbers like "5702".

I honestly don't know what could cause this, or what might be wrong. I feel like if the database had been corrupted, then something more catastrophic than this might have happened. Any ideas? Has something similar ever happened to anyone else before?

 

[BadThad]

I've had worse with Access, lol. Check your input mask for that column, maybe somebody was doing something they shouldn't have been doing. Do you have the mdb backed up? Might be time for a restore.

 

[boomerang]

Do a Compact and Repair as a first step. You'll find it under the Tools menu.

 

[skisteven1]

Tried a compact and repair. It didn't fix anything, but brought the file size from 63MB to just over 10. (oops). As a note, I got put in charge of this database without having had any experience with access... so that was fun.

I went and checked a backup from February, and found the same "problem" with the same data for each entry. So.... Not quite sure what that means, except that it's not a problem I have to solve today. Probably, I'm guessing that there's nothing wrong.

 

[boomerang]

I'm laughing because I was in the same situation. I had to teach myself Access and had a tough time doing it. I've been out of it for about 6 months and I'm forgetting a lot of what I learned.

The Compact and Repair routine is a good thing to do from time to time. I used to do it on a weekly basis.

I think your assumption is correct that you don't have a problem. Trying to straighten out ID's that are automaticallly assigned can get you in a world of trouble. You can always copy the table and mess around with it. If you get it where you want to try it out, simply renaming the table(s) will allow you to test it out.

Just curious, are there multiple users of the database? Are there multiple concurrent users?

Edit: If the ID number is not used in relationships with other tables, leave well enough alone. You can still experiment if you'd like as I suggested earlier. A better scenario would be to copy the entire DB itself and rename it. Mess around in the copy. You can hose a DB to the point that you have to start over. Backups are a GOOD plan.

 

[skisteven1]

I think that the id's are referenced somewhere else, but I'm not sure where. The boss was out today, and since he's the only one who understand the database (what it does, not how it works), there was nobody I could ask questions of. I also spent 2 hours today putting into place an automatic weekly backup system. (oops again).

There are multiple users (2-3 TOPS, usually just 1) who just open the same file at the same time via windows share. Is that particularly bad? That's how they were doing it when I got here, and nobody had complained, so I figured I shouldn't mess with it.

 

[boomerang]

Sounds like the potential is there for up to 3 concurrent users. It's been working fine and should continue to do so. The database I took over had the potential for 25 concurrent users which far exceeded the 10 users max that's recommended.

I split the database into a front end (the GUI) and a back end (the data), but I won't go into the particulars as you should be fine.

As long as your users are just viewing the data, in this case the same data, there will be no problems. Where you can get into trouble is where more than one individual is trying to enter or change data at the same time. Access has record locking features to protect itself, but they are not the most robust unless the DB is specifically set up for it. I should keep quiet as I will worry you unnecessarily. It's been working well and with a backup system in place you will be just fine.

If you're curious, go into the database and click on Tools > Relationships and you will see if any relationships have been created that may utilize the ID as a join.