File Geodatabases

A file geodatabase is an ArcGIS geodatabase in the native computer file system without a DMBS. File geodatabases

• Allow users to easily exchange geodatabases
• Store more than one terabyte of data per table
• Support the compression of vector data into a read-only format. The data can still be used for GIS analysis applications, but compressing can dramatically reduce the storage size.
• Provide better performance than personal geodatabases and shapefiles when working with large datasets.

Personal Geodatabase (Microsoft Access Based)

Available prior to 9.2 as an alternative to the file geodatabase.

Personal geodatabases are designed for a single user working with smaller datasets. They are built on a Microsoft Access file generated by the Microsoft Jet Engine that is included with ArcView, ArcEditor, and ArcInfo levels of ArcGIS Desktop. They have a maximum size limit of 2 GB but begin to have performance degradation between 250 and 500 MB. For this reason, we encourage users who are implementing a new geodatabase for a single user to use file geodatabases. However, ESRI will continue to fully support personal geodatabases for the foreseeable future. Long transactions and versioning are not supported.