How to Effectively Handle Damaged Forms or Reports in Access

Update:

When you suspect that your Access database is corrupted or damaged to any extent, your first option is to turn to the Compact and Repair utility provided by Access. This tool is usually very successful in not only making efficient use of unused space but also in fixing the damages to various objects, restoring all the valuable data from the damaged database. However, there are a couple of things that need to be borne in mind. For one, the tool is not always successful in repairing the database and you may have to employ a recovery tool such as Advanced Access Repair from DataNumen to recover Access databases. Secondly, the tool is only able to repair objects such as tables, indexes and queries in the database. Let us therefore see how we can deal with damaged forms or reports.

 

Again, it is important to note that if you suspect that your Access forms or reports are corrupted or damaged, the damage could either be in the form or the report or the damage could lie within the controls that you have placed on the form or the report. The first option would be to completely delete the form or report that you have and import it from the backup copy of the database. If this is not feasible or if you do not have a backup copy of the database, you could try two other options to recover Access data.

 

If you believe the damage is in the form or report, then simply create a new form or report and then copy the undamaged controls from the original form or report. On the other hand, if you believe that that the controls are damaged, you should again create a new form or report and just re-create the controls. You would be well advised to re-create all the controls since there is really no way of saying which controls are damaged.

 

While these steps will help you fix your damaged forms or reports, you may still find yourself dealing with damaged Access databases that are so severely damaged that the Repair utility is unable to restore the database. If you are working very often with Access databases and handle valuable data, you should have Advanced Access Repair in your software toolkit. This software can restore highly damaged databases, including those that have been password protected! Easy to use and quick in performance, Advanced Access Repair provides you with an effortless way to recover Access data.