Thegrideon Software - View topic

tonyldse · Guest

Greetings!!

I purchased the Pro version to ensure we recovered our Access database, but we are having difficulty - the passwords are recovered (both Database and a user), but the database is still unopened.

I saw the proceedure to create the user, and once created with the password, I made the user an Admin user - still no joy. The database password is not being used as yet - could this be the issue? If so, how do we get the user logon and the database password to work?

Thanks!!

Tony Lupica
tonyl@consultdse.com

tonyldse · Guest

I tried selecting the .mdw associated with the database, and found users and passwords there as well - I have a database password, and four user passwords (two of the users are the same name with different passwords).

How should I proceed - no luck so far.

Tony Lupica

Thegrideon_Support

1) At the bottom of Access Password windows you can see Log window. This window stores all events which occurred. You can save it to a text file (right-click and select "Save Log File", then select destination). You can also double-click text and it will appear in Notepad - so you can work with it like with common text file (copy, paste, edit, save). Please, try to recover password again and send this log to us…

2) Please note: UserID is not a password - you have to recreate following ID in you Access workgroup “system.mdw” database in order to login as this user…. You can find more specific User ID information below.

I) Theory:
User-level security is used to give many users different permissions to the same objects (tables, reports, queries, etc) in MS Access database. User has to authenticate himself with a user name and a password pair. Information about workgroups and accounts is stored in the workgroup information file also known as 'workgroup database' or 'system database': *.mdw, *.mda" (usually 'system.mdw').
User ID is requested during user creation and used in user-level model to distinguish users with the same name from different workgroup files (*.mdw, *.mda). You have to use the same user name and the user ID to recreate user account to be able to access database with this account.

II) Procedure:
If system database (MDW) is lost or corrupted, or Admin account doesn't have access to all database elements – you can fix this situation using that fact that you can recover user IDs.

1. Open your database with Access Password - you will see a list of users in this database (non-standard users) and their IDs.
2. Remember a user name and ID (save It to notepad, you can do this by double-clicking the string with username and then copy\paste to notepad).
3. Click OK in dialog box.
4. Open MS Access.
5. Click menu: Tools-Security–Users and groups. Find user you want to recover and delete it, if needed (optional).
6. Create user with the recovered name.
7. Enter recovered ID (use copy\paste) – click OK.
8. User is created.
9. Now close MS Access and Run Access from the command line with the '/user' option, i.e.: MSACCESS.EXE /user.
10. Open your database and enter recovered username and empty password! If it is opened – it's done.

tonyldse · Guest

Thanks for your post - Based on your procedure, I tried all the combinations of user names and passwords that your Access Password application showed, with no success. I did manage to open the secured.mdw where I found more users (Creator and Engine) - the other users your program found were listed there.

Here is a list of what your program found:

First the security file:

11/3/2005 - 8:37:18 PM Program started successfully [Registered, Pro version 1.5]
11/3/2005 - 8:37:24 PM Trying to open Access Database file: H:\secured.mdw
11/3/2005 - 8:37:24 PM Determining your file type...
11/3/2005 - 8:37:24 PM Opened file is Access 2000 / 2002(XP) / 2003 Workgroup file (also called "System") Database...
11/3/2005 - 8:37:24 PM NOTE: All information in log window is in ANSI encoding!
11/3/2005 - 8:37:24 PM Unicode passwords; names; UserIDs should be taken out from dialogs boxes...
11/3/2005 - 8:37:24 PM Trying to recover Access Workgroup Database passwords...
11/3/2005 - 8:37:24 PM User name: 'admin' and password: '7RT2LXfeTyecV' (without quotes)
11/3/2005 - 8:37:24 PM User name: 'JC' and password: 'dogbert1' (without quotes)
11/3/2005 - 8:37:24 PM User name: 'CD_Subscriber' and password: 'lg3beta' (without quotes)
11/3/2005 - 8:37:34 PM All users passwords have been successfully recovered...

Now the .mdb:

11/3/2005 - 8:40:02 PM Program started successfully [Registered, Pro version 1.5]
11/3/2005 - 8:40:06 PM Trying to open Access Database file: H:\version3.mdb
11/3/2005 - 8:40:06 PM Determining your file type...
11/3/2005 - 8:40:06 PM Opened file is Access 2000 / 2002(XP) / 2003 Database...
11/3/2005 - 8:40:06 PM NOTE: All information in log window is in ANSI encoding!
11/3/2005 - 8:40:06 PM Unicode passwords; names; UserIDs should be taken out from dialogs boxes...
11/3/2005 - 8:40:06 PM Trying to recover Access Database password...
11/3/2005 - 8:40:06 PM Access Database password has been found: class6rocket
11/3/2005 - 8:40:19 PM There is non-standard elements owner in Database:
11/3/2005 - 8:40:19 PM User 'JC' with ID = 'BFKU28MZ2SlXjohlaOF' (without quotes)

What do you think?

Thegrideon_Support

What are the exact MS Access requests and error messages?

Please try following procedure:
1) Open MS Access without database, just MS Access.
2) Click menu: “Tools - Security - Users and groups” Find user 'JC' and delete it, if needed (optional).
3) Create User with the recovered name 'JC' (without quotes).
4) Enter recovered ID 'BFKU28MZ2SlXjohlaOF' (without quotes) (use copy\paste) – click OK.
5) User is created.
6) Now close MS Access and Run Access from the command line with the '/user' option, i.e.: MSACCESS.EXE /user.
7) Open your database and enter recovered username 'JC' and empty password!

tonyldse · Guest

I got further with your assistance - here is the error received:

"This database in in an unexpected state; MS Access cannot open it. This database has been converted from a prior version of Access by using the DAO CompactDatabase method instead of the Convert Database command on the Tools menu (database utilities submenu). This has left the database in a partially converted state. If you have a copy of the database in it's original format, use the Convert Database Command on the Tools menu (Database utilities submenu) to convert it. If the original database is no longer available, create a new database and import your tables and queries to preserve your data. Your other database objects cannot be recovered."

Access doesn't open the database - blank screen.

Since the database works, I wonder what this really means?

Tony Lupica

Thegrideon_Support

It is rights distribution problem. Your database was configured with mutually exclusive access rights for admin and ‘JC’ user most probably in previous version of MS Access. It is also possible that there is no user with enough rights to open this database and read it content (for example admin has right to open, but no rights to read or write, and another user has rights to read/write, but no rights to open – such a contradiction settings is some times a result of VBA or custom database management).
As a result such a configuration prevents database transfer and usage on another computer or system.

The best way to help you with this database is to clear permission parameters “by hand”.What is the file size and is it possible to send it for examination?
We guarantee you full confidentiality. The information resent will be securely deleted right after being examined.

tonyldse · Guest

Thanks for your reply. I would very much like to get a procedure going on this issue - we receive this database regularily, and we want be able to implement each new version. If I send you a sample file, could you give me a procedure to open it myself (each database should be the same, once we figure out how to do this, I can take it from there if I know how)?

The database is about 120MB - I could zip it and send it along. If this is possible, I'll zip and send it Monday morning (let's enjoy our weekend!). I can also make it available on my ftp site if this would be better - also Monday morning.

Thanks for your offer - this would really help if it's possible.

Thanks!!

Tony Lupica

Thegrideon_Support

FTP is a much better way - if it is not inconvenient for you.
Please send link to

and we will examine your database as soon as possible.
Please also add your mdw files to the archive.