Panic over mdb size

[David Habercom]

When I started to back up my database to the network,
Windows said my mdb file is now 19.7 MB -- but until
yesterday (and for more than a year) it has appeared as 73
MB. The data appears still to be intact -- but I am
afraid to back it up until I know what has happened.
Advice? Thanks.

 

[Douglas J. Steele]

Had you been compacting it regularly? If not, perhaps 19.7 MB is the size
after compacting.

 

[David Habercom]

I have not been compacting. Does that happen
automatically? Is that large a drop likely? Thanks.
David Habercom

 

[Van T. Dinh]

Nothing to worry about if the data appears to be intact. Yesterday, I
opened an MDB file of 645 MB for the first time. When I closed the
database, it became 63 MB. What happened is that the database has not been
compacted for some time and because I used the Compact-On-Close option, the
database got compacted when I closed it.