I am trying to  use Visual Studio to create a SQL 2008 database in a project, rather than use SSMS, and I get a message box that "Connections to SQL Server files (*.mdf) require SQL Server Express 2005 to function Properly." I did not install SQL Express 2005 with the VS install, because I installed SQL Express 2008 (64 bit). Both SQL Express and VS have their respective SP1s installed, these are both running on Win 7 64 RTM. A Microsoft web page indicated that creating a SQL .mdf from within VS should work as long as VS SP1 is installed, but it isn't working for me. The Tools ->Options ->Database Tools ->Data Connections is set to the named instance of SQL Express.

1. Does anyone know if this combination works, or what it takes to  get it to work?
2. Does SQL Express need to be installed with VS to install any hooks from VS into SQL, or some such? (I did not bother with Installing SQL 2005 with VS 2008 since I knew I would be installing SQL 2008).

Steve

Hello Steve,

I think you might ran into a problem that has been described here: FIX: Error message when you connect to a 64-bit instance of SQL Server Express 2008 by using Visual Studio 2008 Service Pack 1 (SP1): "Connections to SQL Server files (*.mdf) require SQL Server Express 2005 to function properly"

Please try this link to request for the fix.

Please let me know how it goes.

Regards,
Jie
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This is getting frustrating.

As mentioned above my OS is Win7 64 RTM. Visual Studio is 2008 with SP1. I had both SQL Server 2008 Developer and SQL Server 2008 Express installed, with SQL Server 2008 SP1, as directed twice during each install of SQL Server; also during the each install I would recieve the "Invoke of BeginInvoke cannot be called on a control until the window handle has been created .." clicking OK on this dialog then requires restarting the install which will work the second time for each install (apparently the object is instantiated and not cleared when the install is shut down so able to then be used during the second install attempt (?)).

I uninstalled all SQL 2008 components and started from scratch only installing SQL Express 2008.

So, SQL 2008 Express is installed on the machine, but will not allow mdf creation from within VS 2008. I found a thread on these forums indicating there is a specific SQL Express SP1 that is different from the 'standard' SQL SP1 mentioned in the dialog when first installing SQL Express on Win 7. Downloading the sQL Express SP1 and attempting to install it the instillation halts midway through the actual installation step (step 8) with the "Invoke or BeginInvoke cannot ...." message. Clicking OK terminates the SP1 install so I try for a second attempt, assuming it will work like the other attempts, only now the the installation halts at the Feature Selection step (step 3) of the install because no selection changes are made, nor none can be made since I did a Select All on the first pass.

To try a different tack I installed the Web Platform Installer to see if it would offer a different method, but it reports that SQL Express is at SP1 so nothing needs to be done. Firing up VS and attempting to create a database yields the now dreaded dialog that SQL 2005 is needed.

Will the Win7 64 RTM, VS2008 and SQl Server Express combination really work? Has anyone successfully gotten them to play nice together? What are the magic steps needed to make it happen?

Has anyone run into these problems?


Steve

Hello Steve,

I think you might ran into a problem that has been described here: FIX: Error message when you connect to a 64-bit instance of SQL Server Express 2008 by using Visual Studio 2008 Service Pack 1 (SP1): "Connections to SQL Server files (*.mdf) require SQL Server Express 2005 to function properly"

Please try this link to request for the fix.

Please let me know how it goes.

Regards,
Jie
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The CodeFx Project
My Blog (in Simplified Chinese)

Jie,

Thanks for that link to the KB, and especially the request link. As soon as I get the hotfix I'll post if it solved the problem.


Steve

Jie,

Thanks for that link to the KB, and especially the request link. As soon as I get the hotfix I'll post if it solved the problem.


Steve

Hi Steve,

Is the hotfix working for you?

Thanks,
Jie
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Hi Jie,

Actually the Hotfix did not work on my laptop where I've was doing all the installs and removals of SQL Server. I've built up a clean environment with my desktop and after the OS I installed SQL Express 2008 (en_sql_server_2008_express_with_advanced_services_x64.exe) and then tried to install the SP1 (en_sql_server_2008_express_sp1_x64.exe), which failed with an error I hadn't seen before (don't remember), although the install completed, with errors (there were two, one was about registry entries and the second I don't remember). I haven't tried the Hotfix to this machine and am going to uninstall the x64 version of SQL Express and go back to the x86 version until such time that MS gets the Win7 64 and SQL 64 compatibility issues resolved.


Steve