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I am a beginner in Microsoft Access and one of my friend gave me a copy of his SQL Server file and something with .BAK extension which I believe is the database as it is almost 300MB.

When I try to run the SQL Server file I get cannot connect to backend database error. Searching on the internet I found that I can prevent this by holding shift while opening the database.

Even though this does open the Access file, where I can see all the table,queries, forms, reports and macros icons and names. I cannot open any of them. When I press on one of the table names for example I get

Connection Failed SQL server does not exist or access denied' error.

How do I view the tables?

Parfait
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green coder
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  • Why aren't you asking your friend for help? They know all about the database they gave you, and should be able to help you with issues related to it. We don't know anything about it. – Ken White Aug 21 '18 at 00:10

1 Answers1

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Your MS Access file is linked to a SQL Server. You basically need to

  1. Install SQL Server Express (it's free) https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/sql-server/sql-server-editions-express
  2. Restore the .BAK file into SQL Server Express How to import a bak file into SQL Server Express
  3. Relink all of the MS Access linked tables to your installed SQL Server How does one change the connection string of linked tables in MS Access

This may seem complicated but it is a great opportunity to learn about databases.

Seems your friend is not very helpful.

Nick.Mc
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  • Thank you so much for this. My friend has even less knowledge about this field. He obtained the database from somewhere else. – green coder Aug 21 '18 at 10:52
  • I was able to go through all the steps except the one in step 3 where the last option is to select new location on the dialogue box. The database I got from SQL management studio does not show the location of the database on my computer. It looks like this on the studio ([link](https://imgur.com/a/7cf0QU3)). I don't know how to get that file location. – green coder Aug 21 '18 at 21:09