Linda and Colin, Here's the report: Colin, your method didn't help. There was no background activity and file size didn't change (except for the increase after copying several hundred messages!). Linda, bingo! Scanpst reported only minor errors and said repair was "optional". I did the repair, then compacted and it worked. Good call.... Thanks both for brainstorming...... Peter > > > Ok, I'll give it a try and report back..........Peter > > ************************************************************* You are receiving this mail because you subscribed to mso@xxxxxxxxxxxxx or MicrosoftOffice@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx To send mail to the group, simply address it to mso@xxxxxxxxxxxxx To Unsubscribe from this group, send an email to mso-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?Subject=unsubscribe Or, visit the group's homepage and use the dropdown menu. This will also allow you to change your email settings to digest or vacation (no mail). //www.freelists.org/webpage/mso To be able to use the files section for sharing files with the group, send a request to mso-moderators@xxxxxxxxxxxxx and you will be sent an invitation with instructions. Once you are a member of the files group, you can go here to upload/download files: http://www.smartgroups.com/vault/msofiles *************************************************************