MS Access is a great tool to store data in an organized manner and analyze it. The advanced version of MS Access provides extra features enhancing the performance and providing more security. Access 2016, Access 2013, Access 2010, and Access 2007 stores the file in .accdb format and the earlier version stores the data in MDB file. So, if one is upgrading to new version of the database then the MDB file should be changed to ACCDB format. Here we will learn how to view MDB file and convert them to ACCDB format.
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MS Access 2003 and earlier version has the MDB database file, to move all the data, table, queries, indexes, functions, one needs to convert from MDB file to ACCDB format. Check out the complete details for MDB to ACCDB conversion.
How to Convert MDB to ACCDB
The following steps are applicable to Access 2000, 2002- 2003
- Open the MS Access application
- In the menu bar, go to file and then click Open
- Now, click on the Access 2000 or Access 2002- 2003 database (.mdb) that you want to convert
- Click on File, and then Save As and select Save Database As
- Select the Access file type and then finally click on Save As
- A new dialog box will open, type name in the filename box, and then click Save option.
- This will create a copy of the MDB file database to ACCDB file database and open it automatically. The original MDB file database will be closed.
So, this is the manual method by which MDB files can be converted to ACCDB file. The MS Access also has an LDB file which is a temporary lock file. So, before conversion, we should ensure that the contents in the MDB file are correct. This can be done by opening the MDB file. Check out the steps to open MS Access files
Open and View MDB File Using Excel
How to Import MDB file in MS Excel
- Open the MS Excel application and look for the data tab
- Click on the Access data icon and then click on ‘Get External Data’ section
- A new window will open now browse the MDB file you want to open
- Select the table in the MDB database and open it in Excel, click on OK
- In this way, you can view the MDB file in an Excel sheet
Open MDB with Notepad
- MDB database files involve various types of files, out of which some are in TXT format.
- Open the Notepad application
- Click on File then Open
- Browse to the MDB and then select files in .txt format
- The file will open and you can view them
Use MS Access 2007
MS Access 2007 can also be used to open and view MDB files. However, it does not guarantee that all the components of the MDB database will open or not. Access 2007 is a medium version among the earlier and latest MS Access versions, so it serves as a mediator to view MDB files.
By, following the above methods, you can view the MDB files in Excel and Notepad. Once checked, convert these MDB files in ACCDB format to make them compatible with the latest version of MS Access.