1

a) I am in the process of developing a web site using the new free web development tool - Webmatrix (Beta 2) from Microsoft.

b) Web Platform Installer (recommends and also) automatically installs SQL Server Express 2008 along with Webmatrix and VWDE 2010 Express.

c) My database is created in SQL Server Express 2008. But the hosting company says that they would support only SQL Server Express 2005 (but not SQL Server Express 2008).

d) Can I go ahead with this hosting company or should I look for somebody who supports SQL Server Express 2008 specifically? In other words, the crux of the issue is:

Is it possible to open, read, update the database and tables created using SQL Server Express 2008 in SQL Server Express 2005 edition also?

Esh

marc_s
  • 732,580
  • 175
  • 1,330
  • 1,459
Esh
  • 11
  • 1
  • Did you try database import/export http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1126571/import-export-database-with-sql-server-server-management-studio ? or http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms140052.aspx – Amitd Jan 31 '13 at 16:04

2 Answers2

0

I had the similar issue with hosting company. They gave me a bak file from SQL server 2008 and I tried to restored in in my SQL 2005 environment and it consistently failed. Quite surprised to see the lack of backward compatibility. I would advise to go with hosting provider who supports 2008 or you migrate your DB to 2005.

Hunter
  • 2,370
  • 2
  • 20
  • 24
0

In one word: NO.

SQL Server is never backwards compatible - if you have a database in a 2008 version, there is no way to restore and use that on a SQL Server 2005 machine. There's no trick, no third-party tool, no hack, nothing - it just doesn't work. EVER.

So if your hoster supports only SQL Server 2005 Express, you need to uninstall 2008 Express and manually install 2005 Express on your dev machine.

Or find a hoster that support SQL Server 2008 Express.

marc_s
  • 732,580
  • 175
  • 1,330
  • 1,459