I recently wanted to try out Silverlight and so installed VWD2008 Express, along with it I also added SQL2008, naively so it appears.

After that I was unable to use SQL Server Management Studio Express which was a problem as I am currently developing an ASP.NET 2 application with SQL 2005 Express.

I searched google and followed the advice of one post that suggested a fix was to uninstall sql 2008 and reinstall 2005. This worked.

However, when I went to Attach my Database File (It was no longer attached after the re-installation) it reported:

"
------------------------------

The database 'Biz' cannot be opened because it is version 655. This server supports version 612 and earlier. A downgrade path is not supported.
Could not open new database 'Biz'. CREATE DATABASE is aborted. (Microsoft SQL Server, Error: 948)
------------------------------

"

 I assume the database was modified after the 2008 install. I don't seem to be able to directly connect to the database file via vs2005 either.

Could anyone advise on how to fix this problem... I'm thinking I may need to reinstall sql2008 (Which was confirmed by one post searched on google) and then try and fix the SQL Studio problems but am concerned about making a bigger mess.

Thanks in advance.

Do you have SQL Server 2008 installed somewhere where you can try to attach your database? If you can find some machine somewhere with it, then you may just set the compatibility level to SQL 2005 and hopefully it will cure the problem. Otherwise seems like a big hassle to solve the problem.

 Since this is a specialist SQL question, you could ask at:

• SQL Server Team http://www.sqlteam.com/forums/
• SQL Server Central http://www.sqlservercentral.com/
• SQL Server at MSDN http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/default.aspx?ForumGroupID=19&SiteID=1

Hi Noam and LucaRed,

We still cannot attach the SQL Server 2008 databases in SQL Server 2005 even if we change the compatibility level.

I think using the Database Publishing Wizard is much easier. We can generate the script file for SQL Server 2008 which contains database schema and records and execute it in SQL Server 2005.

Please refer to the following steps, we can change the option Script for target to database to SQL Server 2005

Pettrer:

Hi,

Here's how to upload a local Sql Server Express .mdf database, complete with the table data, using Visual Web Developer 2008 Express, to a Sql 2000 remote account!

1. Right-click the .mdf file in Databse Explorer in VWD. Choose Publish to Provider...

2.  Click Next; Select your db and click Next, and Next again to simply put the resulting .sql file whereever Windows wants it.

3. Select the Sql Server 2000 option from the middle dropdown menu. This is the one which does the trick!

4. Follow the instructions to finish the guide.

5. Open Sql Management Studio Express (which you must have downloaded). Connect to the remote host's db account and find your "db". Right-click and choose New Query...

6. Find your .sql file in Windows Explorer. Right-click and choose Open with Sql Management Studio Express.

7. Copy the contents of your file into the empty "New Query... file". Click Execute or hit F5. Refresh the db pane of Sql Management Studio Express to view your changes.

That's it!

Pettrer, Sweden

Related thread:
http://forums.asp.net/t/1004394.aspx

For Visual Studio 2008, we cannot work with SQL Server 2008 without SP1. So I would suggest you upgrade to Visual Web Developer 2008 Express Edition with SP1.

We can get it from:
http://www.microsoft.com/express/download/

Hi guys,

Thanks for replies.

Just to fill you in on my woeful situation as it stands. :)

The 2005 compatability doesn't work, as Jian supports, so I thought I would just script the schema as the data itself wasn't important. Unfortunately I still couldn't access sql2005 and I later found that my VS2005 projects wouldn't build... nor could I uninstall/install anything due to a corruption of the .NET framework. 

I found a 3rd party .NET Clean utility and managed to remove all instances of the .NET Framework and then reinatall 2.0 again, followed by SQL. I just need to install VS2005 again and hopefully I'll be back to where I was before installing the 2008 suite several days ago. :) 

Hopefully I'm not jumping the gun here, but all seems well again. VS2005 reinstalled and connecting to SQL2005.

All thanks to the cleanup tool located here:

http://blogs.msdn.com/astebner/archive/2005/04/08/406671.aspx

Thanks for your suggestions anyway guys.