<p>This has nothing at all to do with college but I’m coming to you wise and wonderful folks to see if there are any Access Experts who could help me with a big boo boo I made today at work.</p>
<p>I was working in a query and totally didn’t realize that when you delete items in a query you also delete them from the master table. Needless to say, that’s exactly what I did. Is there any hope for repairing this error? Can I set the history back a day? The people I work for don’t really believe in backing up data so there’s no backup file either.</p>
<p>I know it’s not the end of the world - but I feel like such a dope!!!</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Whatever you do, don’t defragment your hard drive.</p></li>
<li><p>Check in Access if you have an “undo” button (as is found in Word and Excel). </p></li>
<li><p>Check the Recycle Bin.</p></li>
<li><p>See if the total ninnies (:rolleyes:)that run your system actually have a backup system. If they do, they’re not total ninnies. Restore your database file if you need to from the b/u copy.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>OK - just looked at Access - the deleted file should be in your Recycle Bin. This may or may not include individual entries into the database file.</p>
<p>If this pertains to mere entries in a database file and the mdb file is not closed, if you close the file without saving it, the original database file may be intact.</p>
<p>Access does not have an “undo” button. It is a “live” system. When you make a change, it is changed, even if you don’t “save” it. That’s part of the reason you always back up a database.</p>
<p>Hopefully in their general backup they have also grabbed the database. You may have to go back and shuffle some paper to get it up to date, but how bad that is depends on when they last backed it up.</p>
<p>If they don’t back it up, they also must not care very much about how accurate it is! Maybe you can just forget about it!</p>
<p>A couple of things - if you do not have sufficient privileges, your changes may not affect the database. I’m trying to recall if Access or SQL has to journalize the entries first and I’m thinking it’s SQL. In which case, you could be SOL. :(</p>
<p>Thanks for your help. I really appreciate it. I’m going to try your suggestions tomorrow. And you’re right - they are ninnies for not insisting I back up their stuff. (Even though I could have taken the initiative to do it on my own).
What do you think would happen if I change the date on the computer to yesterday? Can I go back in time or is that just in the movies?</p>
<p>Do a google search on “system restore.” But I don’t know if that will work. I think it just goes back to where the programs were - but changes in files remain the same.</p>
<p>Changing the date will have no effect. When you write data, you physically alter the file and the drive. </p>
<p>Some db entries are committed or written only at certain times…check all Access help files and do not close the db file until you are sure how it’s set to proceed. Your changes may actually not be written until a certain action occurs. This is sometimes called “journalizing” the entries…which is kind of like buffering (delaying or caching) the changes until a certain command is entered.</p>
<p>just wanted to update you weenie and parent2noles-
turns out that the list i wiped out was just a convenience list for the guy I work with who finds it easier to use this list than having to check the hard copies of stuff. (He wasnt’ there yesterday so I didn’t know any of this)All of the info is still on his master list. I made him back everything up.
Think it’s time for me to start looking for a new job. This one is not worth the hassles!
Again, thanks for sharing your knowledge with me.</p>
<p>I was thinking that any database that mattered to anyone would a.) probably be backed up and b.) probably not be tinkered on by a person just learning Access. </p>