Have you followed up on any of the suggestions to use the view window (type SET in the command window) and find out what's holding those dbf's open?

It could be as simple as needing SET DATABASE TO (yourdbc) before your CLOSE DATABASE.

The hard fact is that you have to have them closed before you can open them exclusive, so you need to find out what's keeping them open.

>Yes, thanks Dan. I am currently using your suggestion of CLOSE ALL, although I don't like having to reopen the project after it runs. It seems like there should be a better way.
>
>This message was in reply to a suggestion that I simply USE AGAIN which doesn't work in this case because I need EXCLUSIVE.
>
>
>>You need to make sure it's closed before you can get exclusive use.
>>
>>Again, CLOSE ALL would do the trick.
>>
>>>Later in the routine I need to pack the table so I need exclusive possession of the file.
>>>
>>>>Just add the AGAIN clause to the use commands;
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>

>>>>use \\tpdfiles\data\dfreeman\trp\data\surveys\rawdata2005 AGAIN in 0 alias rawdata2005
>>>>use \\tpdfiles\data\dfreeman\trp\data\surveys\history AGAIN in 0 alias history
>>>>use \\tpdfiles\data\dfreeman\trp\data\surveys\companyinfo AGAIN in 0 alias companyinfo
>>>>