>No matter what I do, I can't get a small table with 80 odd records in to pack. I can delete the records, but no way will it pack, no matter what SAFETY is set to, or even if used EXCL.
>
>A timer runs every few minutes, zaps the file, and gets updated data put into it for a grid. Eventually the file is soooo stuffed full of stuff that it takes ages to put new stuff in. It is ridiculous to think of the user having to go and clear it manually.
>
>Any ideas? Thanks.

John.

This quote A timer runs every few minutes, zaps the file, and gets updated data put into it for a grid. unquote makes me uncomfortable.
Unless we are here talking about e.g. the safeselect procedure I don't like to have a file 'zapped' the way you do it. sorry.
Zap in my opinion is for developers only and not for production. You should seriously reconsider your coding. Again no offensive.
If zap works ok in development but not in your exe my best bet is you are using two data-sessions / data tables in your exe.
The problem is not 'zap' does not work, but in development codings behave differently than in exe. This is a well known complaint about VFP but so far nobody was able to show a good working sample showing this behavior. You should concentrate on 'what is different in development vs build exe'.

Please explain why you would like to zap we could advise you how to change your codings without this.

Regards,
Koen