So, here I am at work. We're about 10 seconds from porting a database that has been in Microsoft Access format for WAY TOO LONG to PostgreSQL.
Go to open the DB in Access 2003, and bam: "Database is in an unexpected state. Access can't open it." Try all the run of the mill textbook Google recovery utilities that "should work" - nothing. Nothing at all. The server that housed the backups for this went down yesterday - in what can be reasonably described as a ball of flames. Head crash on the HDD. Bad ******. The file was apparently corrupted sometime before that box went down, because all the backups to the replacement server are all corrupted as well. Backup strategy is being CRITICALLY reevaluated.
We can recover the table data through Excel, but that's not cool, because we intended to reuse all the VBA and forms and ****** as a temporary frontend to the pgSQL database with minimal modifications. As a last resort, one of the sysadmins from another department offers to try to open it in Access 2007 Beta. The damn thing just freakin' worked. No fuss, no whiney errors, it just opened. Save as Access 2003 file. Instantly back into a usable format, with EVERYTHING intact. Literally everything.
I am completely, thoroguhly, and totally impressed with Microsoft - apparently something FUNDAMENTAL actually changed in this version of Access/Office, instead of pretty little enduser bull, and a rejuggling of some toolbar buttons.
Go to open the DB in Access 2003, and bam: "Database is in an unexpected state. Access can't open it." Try all the run of the mill textbook Google recovery utilities that "should work" - nothing. Nothing at all. The server that housed the backups for this went down yesterday - in what can be reasonably described as a ball of flames. Head crash on the HDD. Bad ******. The file was apparently corrupted sometime before that box went down, because all the backups to the replacement server are all corrupted as well. Backup strategy is being CRITICALLY reevaluated.
We can recover the table data through Excel, but that's not cool, because we intended to reuse all the VBA and forms and ****** as a temporary frontend to the pgSQL database with minimal modifications. As a last resort, one of the sysadmins from another department offers to try to open it in Access 2007 Beta. The damn thing just freakin' worked. No fuss, no whiney errors, it just opened. Save as Access 2003 file. Instantly back into a usable format, with EVERYTHING intact. Literally everything.
I am completely, thoroguhly, and totally impressed with Microsoft - apparently something FUNDAMENTAL actually changed in this version of Access/Office, instead of pretty little enduser bull, and a rejuggling of some toolbar buttons.
