Too much data for Access 2007????

[pdmc1]

Hi,
I am very new to Access and databases in general. My question is: is it possible to have too much data for Access 2007 to handle?



Here is the scenario: My company uses an EXTREMELY large database, millions of lines of data. We employ admins who perform all of their queries, reports, etc. using an SQL Server. I am not an admin, but have been tasked with writing queries and reports for my work group using Access 2007. I have been able to perform simple queries, but when I try something very complex, Access just runs and runs for up to hours ata time without ever timing out or returning any data. I have supplied my SQL statement to the admins for quality check and testing. They are able to run my queries in the SQL server in less than thirty minutes. Am I asking too much of Access 2007?
Thanks for any advice,
Patrick

[Rixxe]

Simple answer: Yes, you are asking too much of Access. If SQL Server is taking upwards of 30 minutes to run a query, that is a LONG time for a program that can deal with millions of lines of data.
Access isn't built for that kind of work in all honesty.

There are plenty of alternative programs, however not many of them are free. Currently due to work i use both SQLS and SAS, and when a single file contains over 6 million records, Access would never be able to handle the conversions or filtering requirements.

Good Luck.

Edit: Found this, it doesn't answer your question, however tables that contain upwards of a couple of million records tend to be rather large in size (depending on fields obviously). Access has a limit of 2 GB for all the files (macros, tables etc), so that might be a factor in what you decide to do in the future.
http://blogs.office.com/b/microsoft-...07-limits.aspx

[RuralGuy]

It is not too big if you have a split application with SQL Server as the BackEnd and Access as just the FrontEnd.

[pdmc1]

Thanks for the replies. I think I'll pursue some SQL training.......