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mshaffnerFlag for United States of America

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MS Access 2010 Access Database Engine

I have a user that can suddenly not open any of his database files.  We've tried uninstalling/re-installing Office 2007 & 2010 with no luck.  We are getting the following errors when trying to open or create a new database:

"Microsoft Access could not load the Access database engine.
Run setup again and restart the application."

Workgroup Administrator couldn't create the workgroup
information file.  Make sure that you have specified a valid
path and file name, that you have adequate permissions to
create the file, and that you have enough disk space on the
destination drive.  (-3100)

Microsoft Access couldn't find file ' 1'  This file is
required for startup.

Please help &/or let me know if you require additional information.:

Avatar of DatabaseMX (Joe Anderson - Former Microsoft Access MVP)
DatabaseMX (Joe Anderson - Former Microsoft Access MVP)
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wow. sure does seem like a corrupted installation of Office/Access ... Can't recall EVER seeing that error before ...

mx

 Really sounds like a permissions issue.  This seems to be the key:

"Workgroup Administrator couldn't create the workgroup
information file. "

  Despite the fact that the ACE DB format doesn't have ULS (User Level Security) or "Workgroup" security, it still uses and maintains a MDW file so it can support older DB's.  So it's all still there, they just removed all the options in the interface.

  That's why when you go to create a new DB (and my guess is your set for the old format), it sill wants a workgroup file some where.

  Were you logged in as an Admin when you ran this?  And what OS is this?

Jim.
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ASKER

Yes the user is an Admin and this is on Windows XP Professional.  I can't see how it could be a corrupt installation, though we've been having issues with Word as well (though I think I got them fixed by adding the file locations to "Trusted Locations".  We completely removed Office, deleted the folders from %ProgramFiles% and cleaned out the registry keys before re-installing...  Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.  I've found numerous suggestions on Google, but none of them have worked as of yet.
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<<Okay... so I kind of figured this out.  There is NOTHING wrong with the program installation, as logging on as a different user allows the database to open perfectly.  I do not know what happened to the user profile (maybe a password change).  My solution is:  Create a new Windows User Profile.>>

 Well that is part of the "install" so to speak.  Ever since we got the registry, "installing" a program is a several parts, which includes the registry and sometimes the user profile.

  The user profile though is often something no one thinks about.  It's pretty rare that a corrupt profile is the problem, but it does happen.

 This is one of the things I wish Micosoft (and other vendors) would tackle and get right; a un-install doesn't delete everything and a re-install does not overwrite everything, so once a registry key or profile is messed up, your hosed.

  The normal routine at some point should wipe out everything and anything.  Microsoft started doing this for a while (a "force" install), but then they came out with the "self-healing" installs and that disappeared.

  Well anyway, glad to hear you found the problem.

Jim.

 
<<Microsoft Access couldn't find file ' 1'  This file is
required for startup.>>

  Looking back, that should have been the tip-off that it was in the profile.  You often will see %1 in error messages relating to file type processing in Explorer.

 Jim.
I agree with you Jim.... At the very least, they should provide a "cleanup" utility to wipe out those registry entries.  It's extremely difficult, if not impossible, to find them all manually.
No other solution found.  My fix works...