Sorry I figured out what I was doing. You cannot compact and repair the FE of a database from itself due to what C&R entails. I realized it right after I put the post in. I set strSource = [BE.pathname] and strDestination = [Dir where BE resides & "temp.mdb"] Then found this little bit of code that really WOWed me.

Kill strSource
Name strDestination As strSource

That way linked tables are still pointing at the correct path.