I need a faster way to create an index file. The application generates pairs of items to be indexed. I currently add each pair as it is generated to a sorted dictionary and then write it out to a disk file. This works well until the number of items added exceeds one million, at which time it slows to the point that is unacceptable. There can be as many as three million data items to be indexed. I prefer to avoid a database because I do not want to significantly increase the size of the deployment package, which is now less than one-half of one megabyte. I tried Access but it is even slower than the sorted dictionary -if it had an efficient bulk load utility then that might work, but I do not find such a tool for Access.

Is there a better way to roll my own index?