I'm new to Access but already so frustrated by cryptic error messages
that I question the overall quality of the product.

Some text files import OK but others produce one of two "stone wall"
error messages: "The search key was not found in any record" or
"{filename} does not contain data." I say "stone wall" because no
other information is provided, there are no message numbers to look up
and Help doesn't have an entry for the text messages.

I've spent a week trying to guess what the problem might be and so far
have failed. I eventually want to import millions of records in text
files approaching the 2 GB limit but for now am experimenting with
several dozen files with under 60,000 lines and 90 fields.

Most import OK but there are 9 that Access rejects with one of the 2
error messages above. I can import ALL the "bad" files with Excel, no
problem, but not with Access, even if exported by Excel. I can
import ALL the "bad" files with Alpha Five, no sweat. I wrote a C
program to validate the "bad" files (no special characters, same
number/type of fields in all records, no unbalanced quotes, etc. I've
tried replacing null fields (consecutive commas) with a single blank
and/or single 0, I've tried enclosing all fields in quotes and various
field delimiters - tab, comma, semicolon.

I've reinstalled Access twice, tried all combinations of with/without
column labels and/or Access assigned primary key vs my own vs no key.

I'm at a dead stop now and hope someone can help with these
specific messages but I also worry now about the overall usefulness of
Access if other "stone wall" messages are lurking to stop me cold like
this after I've committed to the product.

Hopefully, someone can explain that I'm doing something wrong in
failing to understand these messages. Is there a book I should have
that explains them?

I'm using Access 2003 under Windows XP on a Dell 8100 with 512 MB of
memory and have tried clean boots with no other programs running.