Access DB backend shrinks after repair

[Birdman895]

I got an error message that approximately said that one of my backend data files was in an "Inconsistent state..." and was going to repair it.
After it did the repair the file had shrunk in size by 75% (as reported by windows explorer). Needless to say this really concerned me.
I had made copies of all four of my data files and ran Compact & Repair on them and got similar results. So I opened the old copy and the compacted copy and compared the number of records in each table and they were the same.
I had not run Compact & Repair on these backends in maybe 1-2 years.
Is this a normal result if you haven't done that in a long time?

Obviously I hadn't paid enough attention recently to the data files

 

[pbaldy]

I'm not surprised. Compact/repair should be done periodically, perhaps monthly.

 

[gemma-the-husky]

compact and repair reorganises the database to recover space from deleted records, and to optimise indexes and data storage. Generally there is a healthy reduction in size.

 

[Birdman895]

Thanks guys! Doing that once a month will be a regular task from now on

 

[pbaldy]

Happy to help! Play it by ear, you may find less or more often appropriate. Pay attention to how much it bloats.