friends,
i am using vb 6.0 and ms access 97;

for backup i have used:

compactdatabase <sourcefilename> <destination filename>

followed by

shell("pkzip "....)

i have 3 questions:

1. is there any way to check the return value of compactdatabase method.

2. since i have used dos utility(pkzip) for compression, there is a minimised instance after the zipping has taken place. how can i avoid this?

3. Is there any better utility available?
if i have to use "compress.exe", then i should use syncshell instead of shell. but the former requires additional DLL references. please guide me.

friendly,
jeyasree.