Accessing Access

When I bought Microsoft Office 2000, one of the applications bundled with it was a database program, Access, with which I compiled a quite substantial contacts database. Recently I upgraded to Office 2007, and only after installing it (and deleting Office 2000) did I realise that Access is no longer included in the package, meaning I couldn't access Access. What to do? I tried several options, none of them perfect.
1) Fortunately I still had the old Office 2000 disks, so I reinstalled the suite. I tried to install just Access, but it insisted on installing the whole shebang. At least I can open the database again, but I don't want or need all the other old applications. Neither can I find a way of uninstalling everything except Access.
2) However, once in the database, I can export the contents to a comma-separated file which most other databases and spreadsheets will read, or to an Excel file.
3) I also tried simply opening the database in Excel. It opens okay, but Excel did a rather nasty job of re-ordering all the columns, so they bore almost no resemblance to the way I had constructed the database. I can re-order the columns in Excel, but it's going to be a bit of a cumbersome business (sigh!).
4) There is a big range of 3rd party software which can convert Access files to other formats. I tried several freeware ones, but none gave me any better results than the above. I hope the paid-for versions are better behaved.