mananging a large database

[ginahoy]

Hi Wilson (or anyone),
I've been away from the boards for a while (I think that's a 'good' thing, don't ya think?)

All of my groups are in a single huge (212 MB) dababase. And now I'm getting ready to grab all the Nexstar posts from your d/l page. Woah!

Is it possible to keep the four parts as separate mdb files? That would certainly make searching such a large group much faster.

I just unziped part 4 and tried to 'open' it from the main pgo menu, but it said I can't open an arhive database. But if I use the 'import' function, won't this just stuff all those messages into my existing ygroups.mdb file?

IIRC, the ability to work with multiple mdb files was added sometime last year, but I obviously don't know how it works.

Could you point me in the right direction?

David

[lazlo]

Yes,  you can keep the four parts as separate databases.  What I do is import them into separate folders.  Then I use the 'Open Database' command to switch folders and open whichever part I want to work with.

Lazlo

[Wilson Logan]

Hi Lazlo,

Close but no banana. If you unzip archive files you will not be able to open them using "Open Database". You need to first use "New Database" (from File menu) to create a separate database for each group. BTW, some of my databases contain multiple groups which total  up to 1.8 GB without any trouble.

Cheers,

Wilson.

[ginahoy]

Hi Wilson,
I'm afraid I confused the issue by commenting on the size of my mdb file. Actually, pgo seems unaffected by this.

But when I select one of the larger groups in the left-hand pane, it can take five to ten seconds for the messages to appear in the main frame (of course, when I re-select the group, it's pretty much instantaneous as the file is now in memory).

But the real problem is logical searches, which I do all the time. For example, I only have the most recent 30k messages loaded for sct-user. But it takes over 35 to 45 seconds to get a search result (about half that to search the messages, and the last half doing who-knows-what).

Did I mention my PC is 866 Mhz?

Since I'm usually only interested in searching the recent past, I decided to set up the non-current messages in a new database called archive.mdb.  I imported sct-user1, sct-user2, etc. and nexstar1, nexstar2, etc. into the new dateabase (both groups have over 70k messages).

But in order to do this, I had to go into the original archive mdb files and rename the groups and tables, thus allowing multiple instances of the same group within a single database. Not a big deal.

I'm happy now. (I would be even happier if I had a 3-ghz computer!)

David

[Wilson Logan]

Hi David,

What I'm saying about the size of the database is that it doesn't slow me down much but then I have an Athlon 2600.

I take it you've got a legacy laptop of some description?

Cheers,

Wilson.

[ginahoy]

My desktop is a Dell 866 Mhz running Win ME
I don't upgrade very often... it's just too damn painful (and I'm not just talking about my wallet!)
David

[Wilson Logan]

I know what you mean. Best thing is to get whole other PC ( a 1Ghz would be cheap now) flatten its drive & and ghost your drive onto it.

Then parallel run both till you're confortable with the new one. I came off an Athlon 1700 onto the 2600 this way. The 1700 is under the desk, ready to rock if needs be.

Cheers,

Wilson.

[adegutis]

BTW, some of my databases contain multiple groups which total  up to 1.8 GB without any trouble.

I thought the maximum size of a Microsoft Access database file was 2 GB and verified it in the latest version (2003):

2 gigabytes minus the space needed for system objects (system object: Database objects that are defined by the system, such as the table MSysIndexes, or by the user. You can create a system object by naming the object with USys as the first four characters in the object name.)

From the Microsoft.com page: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/assistance/HP051868081033.aspx

Just an FYI.

[Wilson Logan]

Al,

Yes, 2GB is the limit. I said I have databases that are 1.8GB ( one point eight GB), not 18GB :)

Cheers,

Wilson.

[adegutis]

Wilson,

I did read it as 1.8 not 18. I was just making the point that 1.8 is near the 2 GB limit.  :)

Al

[Wilson Logan]

Al,

Yes, 1.8GB is close to the limit.  I've found that the databases behave normally up to about 1.9GB then strange things start to happen. I have set the size alert on my system to 1.8GB.

Cheers,

Wilson.  

[dioxide]

Al,

Yes, 1.8GB is close to the limit.  I've found that the databases behave normally up to about 1.9GB then strange things start to happen. I have set the size alert on my system to 1.8GB.

Cheers,

Wilson.  

..  My db is at 2gigs  now, what should I do?  Am I just stuck?  I can't even remove the groups already in the db, to make space.  
I assume I can create many dbs and just switch between them, but what should I do now, with it erroring at me constantly?

[Wilson Logan]

Hi,

You should create one or more new DBs (File-> New Database) and separate your groups by subject into them. For example, I have all my motorcycling groups in one DB, all my ,machining groups in another DB, etc.

To transfer groups into the new DB's, first do a compact DB (File-> Compact Database) on the original DB to give you a bit of breathing room & then export groups out to an archive file, import them as required into new databases and then delete them from the original database, following that with another compact database, to recover the deleted space.

Cheers,

Wilson.