Determining the workstation which caused the Microsoft Access MDB corruption

[ Corrupt MDBs | Access | Main ]  (Updated 2010-10-23)

Opening the .ldb file using notepad will show you both who's currently in the database and some of the workstations which were in the database. When a person exits Access their workstation name and Access login id, Admin unless you are using Access security, are left in a "slot" or record in the ldb file. This slot or record may get overwritten the next time someone enters the MDB depending on what slot or record is available previous to it in the ldb file. 

Note that if you see unusual characters such as "†" you must close the ldb file, not Notepad, and open the ldb file in Notepad using the Encoding: ANSI option rather than the default Encoding: Unicode ooptoin.

If running Access 97, actually Jet 3.5/3.51, use the LDBView utility downloadable from Microsoft as part of JetUtils ACC: Microsoft Jet Utilities Available in Download Center - 176670 .Also see ACC97: How to Read .LDB Files - 186304

Note:  If the above LDBView utility is used on a Jet 4.0 format MDB, i.e. Access 2000 or newer, then the Suspect column will be very misleading as most/all user exits will be marked as suspect. Instead use the Jet UserRoster code mentioned in the next paragraph.

With Access 2000 or 2002, actually Jet 4.0, format MDBs, see HOW TO: Check Who Logged into Database with Jet UserRoster in Access 2000 - 198755 or HOW TO: Check Who Logged into Database with Jet UserRoster in Access 2002 - 285822 .   Or see Use ADO to Return a List of Users Connected to a Database for some related details.

Also see LDB Viewer Form which has the above code in a form in an MDB for you.

Note that it isn't the workstation reporting corruptions which is the cause of corruption. Once Access has opened an MDB it does not check for corruptions.  

Also see the Tracking users entering and exiting Microsoft Access Front End page to track these issues on a long term basis.

[ Corrupt MDBs | Access | Main ]

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