should i use buffers, channels or just strait RAF
Channels and rafs are both defendable. I prefer raf for its methods.
Do i just read in all the data byte by byte or is there an easyer way??
Look at the raf methods in the javadocs
after i read the whole record 1, should i load it into an arraylist or vector??
You need to choose and defend your choice. Remeber that arrayList is not threadsafe unless you take steps to make it so.
Would it be better to access the database directly, or going thro an array and then writing the data to the database??
Not too clear what you mean. If you mean using a cache to increase efficiency against writing directly to a file, there are advantages and disadvantages to both approaches. Do a search on this forum for cache.
HTH
Jon