I've seen it take longer than 10 minutes.

Did the file size change in Windows Explorer?

"Jon Jermey" wrote in message
u...
I recently deleted a lot of old messages from Outlook XP. Afterwards I
called up the Data File Management settings and said 'Compact Now'. The
'Compacting' dialog box came up... and stayed... and stayed... After ten
minutes I hit 'Cancel' and it closed without any ill effects. How long
should it take to compact the file (about 200Mb prior to being tidied up)?
Is it possible for compacting to 'hang'?

Jon.