database too big!

  • Thread starter Thread starter Guest
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G

Guest

I've been creating a new database to transfer our approx 12000 record db
into. The old db has a record for each person, and we get a lot of families,
so the new database has a record per address, and a separate table that
tracks the people and associates them to an address in the main table.

I started transferring everything today, and went to finish up, and noticed
my new database is huge- 491 MB. My old database is 48 MB. It is true that
my new database currently has a copy of the old database's main table in it,
I'll be using it to update some of the more minor tables, but I really can't
explain why it would be nearly 10x the size of the old database, it should be
more like twice the size...

Where can I start trying to figure this one out?

thanks, Amanda
 
Douglas,

Thanks a bunch, that was almost too easy. How can a file go from being
almost half a gig to 9 MB just with a compact and repair? I know I deleted
whole tables a couple of times getting all my data transferred properly, but
wow! That big of a difference just makes me a little nervous...

thanks again, Amanda
 
Access doesn't free up space until you do a compact.

If you'd done a lot of imports and exports, for example, lots of temporary
space would have been consumed.
 
Access doesn't free up space until you do a compact.
Click to expand...

And how does that affect using the database?

Does it take up more memory when open, or is it just a matter of how
much space it takes on the hard drive?
Would a db with a lot of slack in it needlessly occupy the cpu?

I am not overly concerned about it making any difference in real life,
but do think the theory of it would be interesting to know.



Lars
Stockholm
 
Lars said:
And how does that affect using the database?

Does it take up more memory when open, or is it just a matter of how
much space it takes on the hard drive?
Click to expand...

Don't know for certain, but I would expect that it would do both.
Would a db with a lot of slack in it needlessly occupy the cpu?
Click to expand...

I doubt it would make much difference to CPU utilization: Access is going to
go to an index, which is going to point to where to look.
 
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