My version of SQL 2005 Express was installed when I installed Visual C++ Express Edition. Today I was trying to use the Upsizing Wizard included in Access 2003 when I ran into SQL Server problems. So here are my tips:
- Go into the SQL Configuration Manager and enable TCP/IP if it is disabled. Someone wrote a post stating that Access 2003 uses TCP/IP to communicate with SQL Server.
- Go into Services and check to see that SQL Server Browser is running. This service was disabled on my machine. This allowed me to see the correct hostname. My hostname is called, “MYCOMPUTERNAME\SQLEXPRESS”. You can disable the SQL Server Browser when you are comfortable.
- Download a copy of SQL Manager from EMS. I used the Lite version since my needs are small and it is free. I would seriously consider checking out the paid version if I was doing a lot of conversions.
- Sample databases are a great way to brush up on your dormant SQL skills. If you are looking for the Northwind database, it is not installed with SQL Server 2005. In fact SQL 2005 does not install any sample databases although a new sample database called AdventureWorks is available as a separate download. If you want the old familiar Northwind database, you can download the samples for SQL Server 2000.
- Download the SQL Server 2000 sample file from Microsoft.
- Extract the files from the archive and copy the Northwind MDF and LDF to your SQL Server 2005 data directory. See Jeff Atwood’s post for more details.
- Attach the database to your SQL Server. I used SQL Manager since the manual method described in the Readme file did not work for me.
- Now if you have successfully navigated the SQL maze, you should be able to run the Upsizing Wizard, access the SQL Server using an Access Project(ADP), access the SQL Server using Excel, and access SQL Server via your favorite programming language.