>Given all of this, **my** view is that many (most?) expect a PACK to copy the
>table, rebuild the indexes and 'optimize' the .FPT in ALL circumstances and
>it should do so.

Actually, Jim, you're the first person I've heard suggest that PACK should do something when there are no deleted records. Since the whole idea of PACK is to remove the deleted records, having it do nothing when there are no records to delete seems to me to be exactly the right thing.

I'm not sure why PACK after you deleted that record didn't change the FPT fragmentation, but I would need to play with it a bit myself so I'd know exactly what you were seeing, and I don't have the time right now.

(Update: mildly peeved about the fact that if I ever return to be an FTE at Microsoft, the headers will make this appear to be an official MS statement, instead of one person's opinion.)