Finding-LimsCode5-mdb

To carry your customizations into the new version, we need the source copy of your MSC-LIMS front end — the file named LimsCode5.mdb. This sheet gives you three ways to track it down, in the order most likely to work.

Why the file can be hard to find

Day to day, your staff run LimsCode5.mde. That is a compiled copy with the program code stripped out, and it is the file installed on each workstation. The .mdb is the editable original the .mde was built from. Your Full System license means you were supplied one — it is simply kept separate from the workstations, and often has not been opened in years.

Both files sit in the same size range, commonly 20–60 MB, so a large Access file is a good sign you have found the right thing.

Ask the LIMS where it distributes from

Try this first:

MSC-LIMS records the folder it copies software updates from, and that folder is the most reliable lead you have. You need to be signed in as a user in the Admins or Owners security role — for anyone else this tab is greyed out.

1. Start MSC-LIMS and sign in. You will arrive at the Main Menu.
2. Click the Admin tab at the top of the Main Menu.
3. In the Data Entry/Inquiry list on the left, double-click System Configuration.
4. On the screen that opens, click the LimsCode tab.
5. Find Step 2, labelled “Choose the LimsCode from step 1 to distribute:”. The wide box beneath it — the one with a Browse… button beside it — holds the full path we need.
6. Click inside that box, press Ctrl+A then Ctrl+C, and paste the path into your reply. The box is narrower than the path, so copying beats reading it off the screen.
7. Click OK at the bottom to close the screen.

Please don’t click these

Closing that screen saves whatever is on the tab, so read the path and change nothing else. Browse… would overwrite the stored path, Update… rewrites the revision stamp inside the file and can prompt every workstation to reinstall, and Clear erases the setting entirely.

The path you copy points at the .mde. The .mdb is normally in that same folder or one level above it — see the recommendations below. If Step 2 is empty, your site never switched on automatic distribution; move on to route B.

Read the MSC-LIMS shortcut

This tells you the folder the software actually runs from on that PC.

1. Right-click the MSC-LIMS icon on the desktop or Start menu and choose Properties.
2. On the Shortcut tab, look at the Target box. It is a long line; the path in quotation marks at the very end is your front end, typically something like C:\MSC-LIMS\LimsCode5.mde.
3. Send us that whole Target line, then open the folder it names and see what else is stored alongside it.

Search the PCs and the server

Don’t use Windows Search for this. It only looks inside indexed locations, so it will happily report nothing while the file sits on the same disk. Use Everything from voidtools instead — a free, tiny utility that reads the drive’s own file table and returns results as fast as you can type. A portable version runs straight from the download with no installation, which usually settles any objection from IT.

1. Download Everything from voidtools.com and run it. First launch takes a few seconds to read the file table, then searching is instant. There is a short introduction at nolongerset.com.
2. Type LimsCode5 in the search box. Every match on every local drive appears immediately — not just the database, but any .mde and .xml beside it.
3. Add the Date Modified and Size columns if they aren’t already shown (right-click the column headings), then send us the whole list.
4. Repeat on each PC you want to check. Network shares are the exception: Everything indexes local drives, so for a file server either run it on the server itself or add the share under Tools → Options → Folders.

Search for LimsCode5 rather than the full file name on purpose. The small LimsCode5.xml settings file is written next to every copy of the software that has ever been run, so it flags folders worth a look even when the database itself isn’t there.

If no new software can be installed at all, open a Command Prompt and run dir C:\LimsCode5.* /s /b. It works everywhere and needs nothing, but it walks the entire drive — expect it to take several minutes per drive.

Where it is most likely to be

In order of how often each turns up, based on the way MSC-LIMS was supplied and maintained:

1. The MDB folder inside your MSC-LIMS Setup folderThis is where the file was originally delivered. Look for the installation folder you downloaded or were sent for your last version update — often named something like MSC-LIMS Setup, kept on a server share or in the LIMS administrator’s archive. The MDB subfolder inside it holds LimsCode5.mdb and LimsMapi5.mdb.
2. The shared folder from route AWhoever built the last .mde usually kept the .mdb beside it, or in a Source, Dev or Master folder one level up. Check the parent folder as well as the folder itself.
3. C:\MSC-LIMS\ on the maintenance PCCustomizing MSC-LIMS has to be done in the .mdb using a full copy of Microsoft Access, so the working copy tends to live on the one machine belonging to whoever did that work — possibly someone who has since left. That PC, rather than the server, is the place to look.
4. Backups and retired hardwareIf nothing turns up on a live machine, your file-server backups or the disk from a replaced LIMS PC are the next stop. Restoring one file from a backup is far quicker than rebuilding your customizations from scratch.

What to send us

Item	Notes
The file itself LimsCode5.mdb	Zip it first — it is large, and most mail systems block bare Access files. If you also use MSC-LIMS Messaging, include LimsMapi5.mdb.
Every copy you found	If the search returns more than one, please don’t guess. Send the list of full paths with each file’s size and date, and we will identify the one your production system was built from.
The paths	The Step 2 path from route A and the shortcut Target from route B, even if the file itself is still missing. They tell us where to keep looking.

Before you copy it

Please copy the file rather than opening it, and don’t double-click it to check the contents — opening an Access database changes it. If it sits on a shared folder, copy it at a time when nobody is using the LIMS.

Stuck after all three routes, or only turning up .mde files? Tell us what you found and we will take it from there — there are other ways to recover your customizations, and knowing which searches came up empty saves time on both sides.