> lcFileContent=FILETOSTR(lcFileName)
> *remove garbage at start and end
> x4=AT( lcFirstRecord ,lcFileContent )+2
< snip >

Aagh...that seems like a lot of code compared to APPEND FROM :)
Anyway, I guess Chris solved it with John'n method...but I just was curious: have you tried your technique on a typical large import file, of say 50 MB or so? I suspect FILETOSTRING will not always handle that, it being constrained by available memory...and even with loads of memory available, it may choke on performance...