>Ahhh...yes. If you are going to be writing directly to DBC/DBX/DBT files, you can't have any tables open associated with that database.
>

That's not true, the DBC can be opened shared and modified just like any other table. You have to use USE AGAIN.

You cannot write over it or delete it while it is in use.

The DBC is opened any time a contained table is opened. It is not by default set to the current database though.