[AccessD] MDB-File format

There was a group of people working on this some time ago.  The fellow at 
ttoews at mvps.org address once provided me some information about these people 
but the project was a rather extensive work in progress based on the Access 
97 file format at the time.

I've found that if the data isn't encrypted, you can open the file with 
wordpad and find text strings in data fields and module code.  Of course the 
compiled code is incomprehensible.  If you want to document the file 
structure, start with an empty database, then compare with a database with 
one table of one field.  Add an index.  Add another field.  Start over with 
a field of a different type.  Try a linked table.  Add a module.  Wordpad 
will get you started with where to point a hex editor as you compare files 
with single changes from one version to the next.

I once had a tables only database that at one point in time had some record 
processing code that I moved to a application and deleted from the back end 
file.  Two years later, after several hundred compacts, repairs and the 
such, Wordpad still found the text of the module.  There was no getting rid 
of it even with a decompile which is something I don't ordinarily do with a 
table only file.

Unfortunately, the format is proprietary and I have read that the anti virus 
software and data recovery companies have some of the best information about 
the format and they reveal nothing to the populace.

Hen

>From: "Wortz, Charles" <CWortz at tea.state.tx.us>
>Reply-To: accessd at databaseadvisors.com
>To: <accessd at databaseadvisors.com>
>Subject: RE: [AccessD] MDB-File format
>Date: Thu, 6 Mar 2003 14:31:49 -0600
>
>Michael,
>
>If there was, there would be a lot less gnashing of teeth and banging of
>heads against walls by Access developers!  There should be somebody in
>M$ that knows the internal file structure, but so far nobody has been
>able to induce him/her to tell the rest of us.  When the person is
>probably a multi-millionaire (if not a billionaire) it is hard to bribe
>such a person.
>
>Charles Wortz
>Software Development Division
>Texas Education Agency
>1701 N. Congress Ave
>Austin, TX 78701-1494
>512-463-9493
>CWortz at tea.state.tx.us
>
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Michael Broesdorf [mailto:michael.broesdorf at web.de]
>Sent: Thursday 2003 Mar 06 08:13
>To: accessd at databaseadvisors.com
>Subject: [AccessD] MDB-File format
>
>Dear group,
>
>is there any documentation available on internal file structures of
>MDB-files?
>
>Michael
>_______________________________________________
>AccessD mailing list
>AccessD at databaseadvisors.com
>http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/accessd
>Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com


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