Summary: This blog describes the manual process to compact and repair Access database without opening it. It also mentions an Access repair tool that can help you fix the database when the compact and repair utility fails.
Contents
When Microsoft Access database (ACCDB/MDB) files become large-sized, it may result in slow database performance and even corruption. Also, hardware or software failure, using databases with VBA module, and adding or deleting data in MEMO fields are a few other factors that may lead to Access database corruption.
When an Access database file turns corrupt or gets damaged, you may have a problem opening the database. Also, you may encounter errors while accessing an ACCDB or MDB file, preventing you from using the database and bringing your work to a halt. To regain access to the database, you can try compacting and repairing it.
Following are some actions you must perform before initiating the compact and repair operation:
After performing these actions, you can begin with the compact and repair operation.
The MS Access built-in ‘Compact and Repair’ tool helps in reducing database file size and repairing the corrupted file. If you can’t open your Access database due to corruption, follow these steps to compact and repair it:
A copy of the compacted and repaired file will get saved in the exact location as your original database.
If the Compact and Repair utility fails to repair the database or the data in compacted and repaired database is missing, use an advanced Access database repair tool. Stellar Repair for Access is one such tool that can repair a severely corrupted ACCDB or MDB database file without any data loss.
Here are some benefits of the software you should know about:
Watch the complete software working from here:
| Notes: Use the Search button to find the file if you’re not aware of its location. The process of searching a database file across all the subfolders might take some time to complete. To recover deleted records, check the ‘Scan for deleted records’ checkbox. |
Go to the location where the repaired Access database file is saved and start using it in your MS Access application.
Conclusion
This post outlined some important actions you must perform before using the built-in ‘compact and repair’ utility to fix Access database corruption. These include backing up the database, ensuring that the database is not in use by any other user, and having sufficient file permissions. Further, the post described the steps to compact and repair Access database without opening it. Also, it mentioned an advanced Access database repair software to fix a corrupted database file.
Also read: Top 10 Access database corruption causes.
Charanjeet is a Technical Content Writer at Stellar®who specializes in writing about databases, e-mail recovery, and e-mail migration solutions. She loves researching and developing content that helps database administrators, organizations and novices to fix multiple problems related to MS SQL and MySQL databases and Microsoft Exchange.
