We are in the middle of a slow migration from Windows NT + Office 97 to Windows 2000 + Office 2000. It’s not practical to convert the company in one fell swoop.
So, we have a temporary situation where we have database backends that are in Access 97 format together with corresponding pairs of front-ends, one in Access 97 format and one in Access 2000 format, to cover users in both systems.
As far as I’ve been able to determine, that should work – an Access 2000 front-end database initially appears to be able to connect to an Access 97 back-end database without any errors or prompts to convert and without seeming to cause problems for others using the Access 97 front-end to connect to the Access 97 backend.
However, all this is causing very frequent corruption of the back-end Access 97 databases. Problems with memo fields (showing #Error) are frequent, as well as prompts asking if we want to repair the back-end.
So, my question – has anyone tried anything similar (multiple front-end versions connecting to the same back-end), and does anyone have any suggestions to avoid corruption? It’s not practical to clone the back-end; the databases in question are very actively used and everyone needs to see the same data.
