[AccessD] Trouble with the Compact and Repair function

 Dear Access Developers Forum,

 

 I having a problem with the Compact and Repair function.

 

 Please bear/endure with me on this long explanation of the problem.

 

 Currently there are two computer systems, side by side with each other, on
my desk.

 

 One is a new computer, and the other is the older computer.

 

 Both computer systems are using Windows-7 Pro 64-bit OS.

 

 Both have Office 2003 Pro, (32-bit), installed on them.

 

 During December 2011 when I was switching over Windows-7, there were
problems

 when using the larger MDB files.  

 

 The December 2011 version compatibility wizard said to use the
compatibility tab from

 properties sub-menu for MsAccess.exe,   Then set the compatibility mode to
'XP Service

 Pack 2' and the privilege level to 'Administrator'.

 

 This cleared up the issue of using very large Access 2003 MDB files.

 

 That compatibility setting is currently on both computer.

 

 The older computer, using an Intel Dual-CPU extreme chip from 2005 that can
do a

 compact and repair of a 1005 megabyte MDB down to 600 megabyte in about 4-5
minutes.

 

 Windows-7 controls the speed of the extreme CPU chip according to demand
from 3.2

 gigahertz up to 3.7 gigahertz.  When doing a Ms-Access 2003 Compact and
Repair the

 Task Manager on the older system has the task CPU times changing all the
time,

 showing that work is being done.

 

 The new computer system, which is an Intel i5-3750, quad-core 3.4GHz
(3.8GHz Turbo),

 things are up and running.   There is an increase in speed for many things.

 

 However,  when it comes to doing Compact and Repair things are not so good.

 

 For the first 15-20 seconds the Task Manager results are the same as with
the older

 computer system.  It was noticed when the temp database, DB1.mdb, grows
past 160

 megabytes the new computer system starts to slow down to a craw.  

 

 Then Task Manager on the new system shows the task CPU time to be at zero
most the

 time though at times it might jump up to 3, or 4, for a second then back to
zero for

 many minutes at a time.

 

 My guess is that it seems something is choking the system from expanding
huge

 temp Access MDB files rapidly.  

 

 I saw something like this on Digital VMS mini-computers during the late
1980's.

 Back then the fix was to adjust an VMS OS parameter to grab larger chunks
of disk

 space when expanding files.   Trading disk space for speed.

 

 When installing the ASRock Extreme6 motherboard, a whole lot of software
came with it.

 One group of items were a number of Intel software things to enhance speed
for the disk

 drive.  Is that a clue, or just a red herring ?

 

 In a test, I let the new computer system run the 'Compact and Repair'
function to 

 see if it ever would finish.   It did after 35 minutes.   Way too long!

 

 So, any ideas on how to get around this problem ?

 

 Thanks.

 

 Sincerely,

 Ed Zuris.

 edzedz at comcast.net