If you are a regular user of Access, there is always a possibility that you will have to deal with corrupted Access databases at some point in time. By quickly dealing with the problem and using handy Microsoft utilities, you should be able to repair the database or at least be able to recover your valuable data. If the Microsoft utilities prove to be unsuccessful in repairing the database, you might need to use a third-party tool to repair the database and recover as much data as possible. However, this will mean that even after you repair Access files, you will have to spend some time rebuilding the database and possibly re-entering some data.
The best option is therefore to try and ensure that you avoid your databases from getting corrupted as much as possible. Here are some steps that you could take to prevent your Access MDB files from getting corrupted.
· If the database you use needs to create temporary tables, populate them, use them and then delete them at the end of a session, you may want to keep those temporary tables in a separate database. This kind of backend database will prevent the main database from getting bloated and also prevent possible damage to it. You could give an appropriate name for the backend so that the purpose of the additional database is clear.
· If you are creating a database that will be accessed by more than one user, the best strategy would be to split the database into two parts ' one part would form the backend and would store all the valuable data; the other would form the front end and would contain the interface objects such as forms, reports, etc. This will ensure that any corruption in the front end does not affect the back end and vice versa. Further, even in case of any corruption, it will be much quicker to repair Access databases that are smaller than one large database.
· If you decide to split your database into a front end and a back end, you might want to write protect the front end, which is going to be shared between many users.
· It has been noticed that memo fields create, though quite often only indirectly, some corruption in the database. It is best if you do not use any memo fields at all. However, if you do need memo fields for your database, you should probably try and store them in tables separate from the parent tables. You can always create a one-to-one relationship between these tables.
· Usually working with a database through a wireless connection should not create any problem but when there are too many users or if there are other networks in the neighborhood, there is a chance that the connection gets cut off abruptly. This may end up corrupting the database especially if you are writing to it at that particular time.
