>Hi All
>
>Were converting a VPF desktop application to .Net
>The old application lives and dies on VFP's Rushmore technology for fast data retrieval from .dbf's ranging in size from 350MB to 1.8GB
>
>So what options are there for a fast LOCAL database engine ?
> SQL Server Express has too big a Footprint and the 4Gb database limit is a issue.
> VistaDB looks like a good option but what's it 's performance on large tables like ?
>
>
>Your recomendations would be most appreciated.

You may try MSSQL, SQLite and Firebird (May 2009 version has .Net 3.5,2.0 support with EF) and others.
Saying "LOCAL" if you did mean "LOCAL" then I think SQLite is what you are looking for (www.SQLite.org). Free, small footprint (under 300K), zero config, .Net EF provider support. Take a look at least. (If you think of parallel task programming in the future this may not be what you are looking for bu check yourself)
Cetin