Access App 2GB, but empty

[chris-uk-lad]

Hi all,

I have an Access App which ive decided to trim down for storage, it was 2GB though ive emptied tables, just to retain the code, the size is no different. I then cleared everything (tables/modules/Querys) leaving it blank yet still shows as 2GB.

Why?

Many Thanks

 

[gemma-the-husky]

you would probably have to do a compact/repair to retrieve the space - although you delete records, that doesnt affect the dbs size until you do a compact/repair (I think like a lot of things, access just marks the deleted code as deleted, rather than physically removing it from the dbs file

 

[Mike375]

They will get bigger as you delete the tables.

In fact I just deleted the tables from one to put it on network and it was 48.7mb at the start and 52mb after I deleted the tables

 

[The_Doc_Man]

A difference of 48.7 mb before and 52 mb after can be caused by moving from a fairly small drive to a much larger drive with a really terrible allocation unit size (cluster size). Which happens a lot for FAT16 drives, less for FAT32, and not very often for NTFS formats. In essence, all of that extra space could be slack space.

A 2 Gb database should benefit a lot from a compact-and-repair style of cleanup. I would be very surprised if it didn't drop to less than 1 Mb. Unless, of course, you retained a few tables and they had embedded objects in them.

 

[gemma-the-husky]

having said all this - its funny you mention 2GB as the dbs size - since access dbs are limited to 2gb max size - did you get any operational errors as a result of hitting this size?

 

[Mike375]

A difference of 48.7 mb before and 52 mb after can be caused by moving from a fairly small drive to a much larger drive with a really terrible allocation unit size (cluster size). Which happens a lot for FAT16 drives, less for FAT32, and not very often for NTFS formats. In essence, all of that extra space could be slack space.

That was still on the ssame computer.

It always amazes me how a little DB blows way up in size when you are making stuff.