Rectifying "Unrecognized Database Format…" Error Message in MS Access

In an Access database (.mdb or .accdb) file, the records are stored as contiguous pages with a fixed size. The first page (also called as database definition page), contains the most important definitions of the database. Corruption of database definition page primarily occurs due to application malfunctioning, software bugs and more. In such situations, several bytes in the head of the file are lost permanently and the data stored in Access database becomes inaccessible. To overcome such data loss situations, you will need to restore the data from an updated backup. But, if you have not created any backup or the backup fails to restore the required data, then you need to use advanced Access Repair applications to completely repair the database.

As a practical case, you receive the above error message when you attempt to mount a database (Accounts):

"Unrecognized database format 'filename.mdb"
The filename.mdb file is the corrupt Access database file to be opened.

Data stored in the Accounts database becomes inaccessible after you encounter the above error message. Additionally, you encounter the same error message each time you attempt to open the database.

Cause:

Few causes for the occurrence of the above error message are:

You are trying to open Accounts database in a new version of Microsoft Access.
Accounts database is corrupted.

Resolution:

To resolve the above error message and access the data stored in the Accounts database, you need to use an inbuilt repair utility known as "Compact and Repair." To do so, you need to follow these steps:

1. Go to the Tools menu, select Database Utilities and then click Compact and Repair Database.
2. Locate and then click the database in the ‘Database to Compact From’ dialog box, and then click Compact.
3. Select an appropriate folder location for the new file in the ‘Compact Database Into’ dialog box, type a unique name for the file and then click on Save.

However, if the inbuilt repair utility fails to repair the Accounts database, then you need to opt for advanced access repair applications. Such Access Database Repair applications incorporate high end scanning methods to completely recover all Access database components. These applications can completely recover and restore inaccessible Access databases. Equipped with interactive user interface, these recovery tools are self-explanatory applications which can be implemented without the need of any prior technical understanding.

Stellar Phoenix access recovery is a powerful Access Database Repair tool. This recovery tool can restore and Repair Access database objects like queries, forms, reports, macros and modules. The software supports Microsoft Access 2007, 2003, XP (2002) and 2000. It is compatible with Windows Vista, XP, 2003, 2000 and NT.