[AccessD] Backing Up Access MDB

A.D.:

But do they guarantee completely consistent backups? Anyone can backup files
in a running mdb -- but how can you be sure there are no update/delete
locks, or pending/reversing transactions in place?

Microsoft emphatically states that you can't rely on the internal
consistency of the data when you do a live backup of an mdb file -
regardless of whether you backup whole files, or tables individually.

Honestly, I'd love to be able do live backups of Access data, but until I
see proof that they handle these data consistency issues properly, I'll hold
off. After all, a restore that scrambles the owner's data is of no use to
anyone.

I'll end by restating my current position: Access is not an enterprise data
server. If you need 24/7 access, high concurrency, failover/data recovery,
and live backups, move to SQL Server or the like.

-Ken


-----Original Message-----
From: A.D.Tejpal [mailto:adtp at touchtelindia.net]
Sent: Tuesday, December 09, 2003 10:27 AM
To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving
Subject: Re: [AccessD] Backing Up Access MDB


Paul,

    You might like to take a look at Access Add-In named SelfSaveAddIn.mda
available at Rogers Access Library (Other Developers Section).

    Once installed, you can create compacted backup copies from within the
running db at the click of a button (without having to close it first). If
it happens to be a split db, compacted backup copy of the back end also gets
created simultaneously.

    Following options are available for stamping the backup copies (over &
above the basic suffix of "_Bk") -
        (a) Current date and hour
        (b) Current date
        (c) No stamp

Regards,
A.D.Tejpal
--------------
  ----- Original Message -----
  From: Dan Waters
  To: 'Access Developers discussion and problem solving'
  Sent: Tuesday, December 09, 2003 21:09
  Subject: RE: [AccessD] Backing Up Access MDB


  Paul,

  If you only need to back up the data, perhaps you could just manually copy
  the data tables from the operating mdb to a different mdb?

  What I've done before is to time my mdb changes (or backup) during lunch
  when most people are out of the system, and won't mind if you log them
out.

  HTH,
  Dan Waters

  -----Original Message-----
  From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
  [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of
  paul.hartland at fsmail.net
  Sent: Tuesday, December 09, 2003 6:38 AM
  To: accessd
  Subject: [AccessD] Backing Up Access MDB

  To all,
  We are coming upto our busiest period (January), and we will have about
  15-20 users on Access at any one time.  Is there a way to backup the mdb
  file without taking users out, without the risk of losing any data ? Paul
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