How to use SQL Server CE with C# 3.5 – The absolute basics

I’m writing this article because a small project I’ve been working on required me to look for information on using SQL Server CE with C# 3.5. I couldn’t find very many useful articles on the topic so I’ve decided to write my own and summarise some of the useful bits I found....

SQLCMD.EXE on SQL 2008 doesn’t work – HResult 0×2, Level 16, State 1

I’ve built one of my test servers with SQL Server Express 2008 w/ Advanced Services. On a whole load of our servers I use SQL Express for local installations and SQLCMD.EXE works well as a good way to run scheduled backups. It’s done this way because SQL Express doesn’t support SSIS (SQL Server Integration Services), the component required for scheduled tasks. I wrote an article about this a...

SQL Server 2005 Express Unattended Install – Further Info

Recently I posted an article about how to perform an unattended installation of SQL Server 2005 Express. A comment was posted asking how to set some specific options during the installation – here’s how....

SQL Server 2005 Express Scheduled Backup – How?

A lot of my articles make use of or mention SQL Server Express, the light and cut-down and FREE version of Microsoft’s flagship database product Microsoft SQL Server. One of the features of the full and very expensive version of SQL Server 2005 is the ability to run scheduled backups using SQL Maintenance Plans. SQL Server requires SSIS (SQL Server Integration Services) for these to be available –...