In previous versions, export tools would recalculate or maintain the Spatial Index of the source data when converting from SHP to PGDB. This no longer occurs for PGDB at 9.3, although it does it for FGDB. Instead, it uses the default Spatial Index of 1000, which is inadequate for data in Geographic coordinate systems. This can create a performance issue for some data sets.
1. Use the GP Environment Setting "Output Spatial Grid 1". GP tools will honor this setting, for example Feature Class To Feature Class. If you set a Output Spatial Grid of 1, then the Spatial Index of the output Feature Class will also have a Spatial Index of 1. This will greatly improve panning, zooming and GP performance.2. Switch to FGDB3. If unable to switch to FGDB, use FDGB as an intermediate data source, then copy and paste to PGDB.4. Use the Calc Default Spatial Grid tool to determine an adequate Spatial Index, then create new PGDBs and specify the Spatial Index. Then load the data.