Autonumber, Compacting, & Space Used

I have just a few general questions. Should one set there database to compact on close? What are the pros and cons? I read that by compacting the database, this will reset the autonumber after you delete your test data. Does this also affect the autonumber for records that are still in there? If later, I delete a bunch of records that are no longer needed, by setting it to compact on close, will this remove that used space taken by the deleted records, thus helping keep the database under the 2GB limit?

Would appreciate any opinions on this.

Thank You,

Chad

Yes and No

Yes -- if you are making a lot of programming changes and I would only use this when in the development stage. It is programming that really grows a DB (more then data changes). I have Data DBs that only grow by more the 10% over there compacted size (over a 6 month time frame) and they are heavily edited and some the grow really fast (it depends on how data is added and removed from you system).

No-- if you are in a multi-user enviroment. This will cause problems if you are using the same DB




NO





Yes


But if you splt your DB (like it is recommended) and you get a Data DB that gets to 2 Gig, I would not use Access any more ( you will see speed issues at that size)

Compacting as really subjective (on when to do it) Once you get your DB in to live production use. Monitor is and see what happens. Just because you can do something, doesn't mean you should. You may find that you DB only needs compacted once every 1-3 months, or needs compacted every week. But they typically don't need it every time you close, unless space is very tight on your system

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Thanks for the reply sbaxter. So, when I split the db, it is ok to compact the backend once in awhile?

Thanks,

Chad

yes when no one is using it.

If you have already added a switchboard mananger, make sure that after you split your DB that you move the table "Switchboard" from the BE to the FE

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