Compact Time?

[ABigMac]

A remote site has reported their used-for-several-years MS Access db was failing to save new records. They had not been compacting regularly but did attempt to compact but after 14 hours decided to crash the compact believing that something must have hung up. They now report the db size is 2 gigs and though the sign-in splash screen comes up, they receive an error message re: unknown user ID. Two questions: what should the normal compact/repair time be for a relatively large file? Any suggestions for getting into the db to do a compact besides going to an earlier backup that is below the 2 gig limit?

Any help appreciated.

 

[jadams0173]

you may be able to use the jetcu40.exe. It is provided by MS to try to compact and repair mdb's that the regualr compact won't fix.

You can also consider using VB6 or something to write your own compact routine. I've done it and it works good for mdb's that aren't corrupt but just are so large they won't compact with the access built in compact and repair.

 

[Hap007]

Hi,

Just a thought on time to compact a database.

Never compact a large database over a network connection unless you expect to spend a long time waiting for it to finish. There is so much I/O activity going on and to do it over a network takes forever.

Instead, copy the file to your local PC hard drive, compact the file on the local drive and then copy it back to the network location. In the long run, it is much faster.


Here is a link for the Jet Compact utility:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;295334

And here is a link for an earlier version:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;273956

And here is a link regarding access limits:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/302524/en-us

Hope this helps,
Hap...

Access Developer

http://www.fcs-software.com/fcsaccessdev.html

Access based Accounting Solutions - with free source code
Access Consultants forum

http://www.tek-tips.com/threadminder.cfm?pid=1121

 

[Hap007]

opps, for got to tell you about time.

I regularly need to compact a 1 gig access mdb file.

In this case, when I copy it to a local disk and then compact on the local drive, the compact takes between 10 and 15 minutes.

Copying to and from the network takes about 2 minutes each way.

Hope this helps,
Hap...


Access Developer

http://www.fcs-software.com/fcsaccessdev.html

Access based Accounting Solutions - with free source code
Access Consultants forum

http://www.tek-tips.com/threadminder.cfm?pid=1121