File Size Increasing Rapidly

[bigben]

I have searched through the threads but haven't found an answer to my problem so here goes.

I have a half a gig Access 97 database that has a load of objects (about 50 Mg) and a lot of records (about 450 Mg). It is compacted weekly and was recently imported into a new database. However it is growing really fast now - in the last week it grew by 100 Mg even though the usage was simply data input as it always has been. We do use logos in our reports but they have been there for a long time (several months) and we have not added any recently so I can't see how this could be causing the jump. The only changes we have made recently is to add reference libraries for Outlook and Word to one of the modules.

Does anyone have any clues as to why the database might grow so quickly? I thought that maybe when they reach a certain size they might grow faster but the database is not being used more now that it was a few months ago.

We also do use memo fields quite a lot and I wondered whether this could possibly be a possible cause for quick growth?

 

[Francescina]

Apparently you integrate files such as graphics, word documents or any other format and you use the standard ACCESS OLE functions and this is bloating your MDB file.
One solution is to replace the standard OLE functions with more performant code. Code libraries are available for Graphic files (JPG, GIF, Autocad, Corel Draw, Anime Gifs...): see

http://www.unsoftwareag.com/togwa.htm

as well as for Word/Excel, Autocad, soundfiles...

 

[bigben]

Thanks very much for the tip. We do use a lot of linked word doucments for records, and will try just using the path and file name in a text field instead of using OLE. I must admit I was never a great fan of OLE.