Resolving MS Access 2003 error "unrecognized database format"

Corruption in Access database mostly results into the error messages which appear during the database mounting. Error messages makes database inaccessible or un-mountable. Few situation under which MS Access database gets corrupted are improper system shutdown, virus attach, faulty hardware, software malfunction and many more. The damage created by error messages can be handle by using an updated backup. Most of the Access database administrators have the backup of database to handle these types of corruption issue but there are some database administrators also; who forget to create the backup of database. In such situation, database administrator need to use 3^rd party access database repair tool to repair corrupt Access database files.

Consider a practical scenario wherein database administrator is trying to open the database table and got below error message:

"unrecognized database format" along with the name of database

Possible Cause for Error Message: The root cause of above error message is that Access database has been corrupted.

How to Resolve: Database administrator can resolve above error message by following methods:

Method 1: Delete all Link Tables

If it is split database wherein tables are present is the back-end database and forms, reports & queries are present is the front-end database then back-end database is corrupt. Try to open back-end database, if it lets you to see the tables then open front-end database and delete all the table links. After deleting the links use the file and go to the Get external data and re-link the table again.

Method 2: Compact & Repair Database

If it is not a split database then user can resolve above error message by following steps:

• Close all the Access database files.
• Go-to the Tools menu and select Database Utilities.
• Now point to the Compact & Repair Database.
• Select your desired database file that you want to repair.
• Give the name & location to save the compacted database and click on the save button.

Method 3: Restore from Backup

If you are still unable to resolve above error message by performing two methods then take a sign of relief that you have an updated backup of the database.

• Create a new blank empty database.
• Import all the tables & objects from the backup copy.
• Done

Method 4: 3^rd party Access Repair Program

If you don't have backup or old backup then it is the right time to use 3^rdparty Access database repair program. There is so many such types of programs available on the Internet that claim they can recover the data from corrupt tables. Give them a try and see what they can do for you. 

Tips to Recover Data from Damaged Access Table

Microsoft Access is a part of MS office and used to store data by several organizations. It uses tables to store records. MS Access tables may get corrupt due to several reasons like faulty hardware, virus attack, fatal system errors, power outage and many more. Owning to these reasons, you may want to recover data from corrupt tables. This blog post can surely help you in recovery of data from corrupt tables.

Steps to Recover: Perform following steps for recovery of data from a corrupt MS Access tables:

1. First of all make a copy of your damaged Access database table.
2. Now create a new MS Access table
3. Paste the structure only of damaged table into new table
4. Now you have two tables; damaged table & new table with same structure
5. Open both the table so that you can view both the tables
6. Switch to the damaged table.
7. On the Edit menu, click Copy to copy the records from the damaged table
8. Now switch to the new table, put the cursor in the same location that the data was located in the damaged table. On the Edit menu, click Paste.
9. Perform this operation for all the data and test after each copy & paste operation
10. After moving all the records into a new table, create a new blank database in MS Access with different name.
11. Now import all the undamaged database objects & new table into newly created blank Access database.
12. Close the MS Access.
13. Rename the damaged Access database and move it to the new location. If there is .ldf file of corrupt database exist then delete it first and then after move it to new location.
14. Now rename the newly created database with the name of corrupt database.

Additional Tips

• Always create a copy of damaged Access database to avoid irrecoverable damage during above steps.
• Test recovered Access database before implementing it to production environment.
• Don't delete copy of damaged database until recovery is complete.

Applied: You can apply all the above steps for MS Access 2000, 2002 & 2003.