Growing Database in ACCESS 2000

N

Nigel

Hi,

Can anybody tell me why my database seems to increase to such a large size
(from 18MB to 31MB) when just a small amount of data has been added. It
never used to until I replaced the server. I can compact it back down but
once more data is added it shoots back up. I have three main users
networking to the database, one using XP and two using Win2000. Within our
main order form are three file links, these will link to either a Word
97/2000 file, Excel 97 file and a design file. Although I relinked the
tables and copied everything from the old server to the new, the file links
were all lost ?. We have re-linked all these, which I thought might be the
reason for the database size, however I still appear to have the problem.
Any ideas?

Thanks Nigel M
 
N

Nick Coe \(UK\)

Database sizes do grow in quite unpredictable amounts. This
is due to a number of different things. In your case I
suspect that you've got a different size hard disc in this
new server so the amount of physical space taken by each
byte or byte pair is greater than before. Plus it looks
like you might be storing OLE objects and/or images - if so
they eat space.

Since the Jet engine doesn't reclaim empty space and uses
space for it's own temporary storage you can see non linear
jumps in used space during use.

I'd worry if the size suddenly jumped from 18Mb to a few
hundred meg or more with only light use.

Nonetheless, back up and check for corruption regularly
since you could conceivably have a naff network card in the
new server although the symptoms of that are usually far
more obvious and severe.

--
Nick Coe (UK)
Available - Will work for money :)
http://www.alphacos.co.uk/ AccHelp + pAnimal
http://www.pjandcoe.co.uk/ TShirts with Bark Factor!

In Nigel typed:
 
N

Nigel

Hi,

The new server does have larger hard disks and is setup as RAID 10, the old
server was RAID 1, it also has twin network cards. The mystery to me is that
the database does not seem to be affected by one of the workstations/users
entering data, but the other two users do seem to affect it. The user who
does not affect the database is on the same switch as the server. Of the
other two one goes through two switches (the server, switch plus one other)
and other user currently goes through three switches (the server switch,
plus two others). Thanks anyway.

Nigel M
 
N

Nick Coe \(UK\)

Nigel,

Those switches could be a factor, certainly a piece of
circumstantial evidence worth noting. You could try lugging
one of the suspect pc's up to where you can bung it into the
server switch and see if you can replicate. I vaguely
remember an issue with oplocks (optimistic locking) on
servers - suggest you search MSKB.

Access should never be used as is over a WAN, you can get
some nasty problems as propagation delays increase.

Albert Kallal has some info on using Terminal Server which
you might consider.

http://www.members.shaw.ca/AlbertKallal/Wan/Wans.html

What do you mean by a design file?

--
Nick Coe (UK)
Available - Will work for money :)
http://www.alphacos.co.uk/ AccHelp + pAnimal
http://www.pjandcoe.co.uk/ TShirts with Bark Factor!

In Nigel typed:
 
N

Nigel

Nick,

Thanks for information. Yes, I will be able to plug one in directly to the
switch with the server and test it. A design file, simply the plan created
by our design program and saved.

Thanks Nigel
 
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