In the hope of being more specific about the problem we're facing, please allow me to rephrase. We're attempting an FTP transfer from a file with a record length of 56 (i.e. REC= -56,,F,ASCII) to a file with a record length of 100 (i.e.REC= -100,,F,ASCII). This is the FTP syntax we're using : GET <sourcefile> <targetfile> ;REC=-100,,F,ASCII The BUILD options work fine and targetfile *is* created with 100 byte records. BUT, the first record of the target file now contains the first record of the source file *plus* 44 bytes of the second record of the sourcefile and so on.... In other words, it's seems to be ignoring the sources End-Of-Record markers, or it's not padding the remainder of the target record with spaces. The files we're transferring are only a few dozen records each, and more often than not it's a transfer from one HP3000 account to another. This was not a problem under MPE 4. Yet again, many thanks. Costas Anastassiades Information Systems Dept, INTRACOM SA Athens-Greece