subject: Index corruption in Access database and tips to perform Access database repair [print this page] Index corruption in Access database and tips to perform Access database repair
Indexing is a technique used in MS Access to improve the database performance. It is particularly beneficial in situations where we require to operate on complex and large-sized databases. Indexes make the data access easier and faster. Apart from optimizing the search queries, primary key and unique indexes help to eliminate duplicate row data. These indexes may get corrupt due to various reasons, such as virus infections, bad sectors on storage media, improper index maintenance etc. This may cause Access database corruption and subsequent data loss. To overcome the problem, you need to perform Access repair of your corrupt database through a reliable third-party utility.
Let's consider a practical scenario. Suppose you use MS Access 2007. You may notice some unexpected query results when you try to fetch records from a database table. The number of records displayed may vary each time you use a different sort clause.
Cause:
This behavior is usually seen when an index of the table you are trying to access has been damaged.
This may cause table corruption and prevent you from accessing the valuable records in your table. You may use a backup to recover all the lost or inaccessible data. However, if the backup is missing, follow the below mentioned resolution steps to repair Access file.
Resolution:
These steps may help you resolve the problem-
Go to 'Database Tools' and choose 'Relationships'.
Delete all the relationships associated with the table.
In the design view of the table, open 'Indexes' box
Delete all the indexes on the table, save, and close.
In the Nave pave, copy and paste the table giving it a new name and selecting 'Structure Only'.
Run a query on the old table to see all the records present in the table.
Append these records to the new table using the Append query.
Check to see whether all the records are present in the new table. If yes, delete the old table.
Click 'Compact and Repair Database' on the 'Database Tools' ribbon to compact the database and delete all the references to the problem table.
Give new table the same name as of the old table that you deleted recently.
Recreate all the previous indexes and relationships.
If the above resolution steps fail to fix the problem, you should take help of an efficient Access database repair tool. These third-party software use safe repair mechanisms to recover all the damaged components of a corrupt Access file.
Stellar Phoenix Access Database Recovery is a comprehensive utility that repairs corrupt MDB files created in MS Access 2010, 2007, 2003, 2002, and 2000. It retrieves all the objects from the corrupt database file including tables, form, reports, password-protected VBA code etc. Moreover, it is compatible with Windows 7, Vista, Server 2003, XP, and 2000.
