Can not open a database

[Pemapanik]

I posted this earlier but have not received any response and the issue is still there. If I can't get this figured out I not only will have to completely redo my database of customers but also switch back to MS Office because a problem like this is serious.

When I openned my database today I am received a popup that asked me to select a filter for the file. It is a odb file and I worked on it last night. When I select ODF database it'll start to open the file then give me a general error. When I go to the table area it will give another error reading, "The driver class '' could not be loaded." I created the database in Open Office.

I've selected almost every filter and nothing will open it as well as I have tried to open it with different programs as well.

[Villeroy]

Use any database you like but do not use Base for creation of new databases. The native, self-containing type of Base database is feature-incomplete, insecure, unsafe, clumsy, slow and proprietary.
OOo's Base component is most useful when you have some kind of database already and need to access it's data from this office suite. You may also consider to work with an existing database by means of Base's forms and reports. They are not too bad once you have a working databse, created with any other mature database tool which offers to expose data through odbc drivers (or jdbc).

[Pemapanik]

Anotherwords, I should bother with OOo's database and stick with MS Access. While OOo doesn't have all the features of MS and runs slightly different I was actually beginning to like it till this happened. Is there a way I can recover the information within the database?

[Villeroy]

Your odb file is a zip-archive. Open in your prefered archive tool and see what is in there. Just guessing: May be you can copy the binary database content into a newly created database? If your zip tool does not even recognize the file as a zip archive then your data are lost, I'm afraid. In any case you need backups, no matter what program you use. Apart from software failures there are hardware failures and power failures and human errors.
If your file has no more than 100 kB of non-confidential information you may attach it to a new thread in the Base forum, so other people may have a look at it. If your file is more than 100kB of non-confidential information I recommend http://mediafire.com.

[Pemapanik]

Well, I tried opening it in WinZip but it doesn't recognize it as an archived file. I hadn't backed up the database yet because its only been about three or four weeks since I switched from Access. So it is not a total lost, the only thing is I don't have Access on the computer I currently use and the old one had problems due to the privious person's lack of understanding what a virus is. If I use the old database again can I save it in the OOo format so I can continue to update it and add to it without having Access on this computer?