>...the speed of a Pack depends to a great extent on the size of the file - our 100MB main file takes about 40 min. to pack and reindex. Far too long to lock other users out of the system. Also, we need 300MB free space on the Packing computer, and most of our workstations have less than 50MB free on the C drive where the temp files reside.
>
>We use a regularly scheduled pack/reindex of all tables while the software is shut down on Sundays.

Hi Barbara,

Actually we do too, and it takes about 5 hours to pack and reindex everything, if all goes well. One of my goals here is to reduce this time considerably.

For enterprise-size databases, pack-on-the-fly is not a solution. I should have made it clear that we use it just for small tables -- up to 5000 records (a largely arbitrary limit).

Thank you for the opportunity to clarify this point.

regards,