Excel crashes while macro processes large text file

Hey,

I have a macro which performs a search operation in a text file. The code accesses the text file (without actually opening it) and searches for a particular search text (provided by the user) by going through the entire text file line by line.

The macro runs fine for a text file of size aound a 100KB. The problem comes when the user provides a file of 4MB or more. The excel hangs, or sometimes just plain crashes.

The whole purpose of this macro is to search through large volumes of data (in a single text file). So when it crashes... well lets just say its a big problem.

Is there any way to prevent this ?? Any help would be highly appreciated. I'm really lost on as to how to go about this problem....

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