I am having a terrible problem. I have a very simple database which will have 2 images for every record. I have 6 records and my datbase is up to 80MB but the pictures are a maximum of 1mb each. I have not deleted any records so I can not understand where all the fat has come from. This can not be right. When I am up to 1000 records my file would be rediculously large. Is there something I can do rather than storing a reference, I used to do this in the past but always ended up with more problems than advantages.

Images in container fields do take up a bit more space than their actual file size, but this sounds a little bit excessive. Have you previously had a lot more than 6 records with images that have since been deleted? Sometimes empty space is not reclaimed and the file is fragmented. If you use the file maintenance utility in 8 advanced or if you use save a copy as... (compressed) the file size should go down.

If you're worried about your main file getting too large, and you don't want to use references, you could create a separate file that only holds the container data and relate those records to the ones in your main file.

I found the problem embarressing as it is. I was looking at the wrong file! I have it sorted now, I am not used to FM7/8 I must be allowing myself to get confused.

Thanks for the help