SQL Server Express 2008 Install Side-by-side w/ SQL 2005 Express Fails

Question

When I try to install a new instance of SQL Server 2008 Express on a development machine with SQL 2005 Express already up and running, the install validation fails because t

Answer 1

Simply remove the Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio Express 2005 from control panel

Answer 2

Although you should have no problem running a 2005 instance of the database engine beside a 2008 instance, The tools are installed into a shared directory, so you can't have two versions of the tools installed. Fortunately, the 2008 tools are backwards-compatible. As we speak, I'm using SSMS 2008 and Profiler 2008 to manage my 2005 Express instances. Works great.

Before installing the 2008 tools, you need to remove any and all "shared" components from 2005. Try going to your Add/Remove programs control panel, find Microsoft SQL Server 2005, and click "Change." Then choose "Workstation Components" and remove everything there (this will not remove your database engine).

I believe the 2008 installer also has an option to upgrade shared components only. You might try that. Good luck!

Answer 3

The problem is that SQL 2008 MS has a bug where connecting to a remote server (say like a service provider collocation) it will always try to open the fist db in the list, and since the possibilities of been ur db the first on the list are really low, it will throw and error and fail to display the list of dbs... which using sql 2005 management studio it just works.

Wished I could use SQL 2008 MS, but looks like as far I connect to remote SQL 2005, SQL 2008 is out of the question on my dev machine :(

Answer 4

N.B. These notes are for SQL Server Express 2008 R2 (so Microsoft still haven't made this any easier). I also realise that I complicated things by installing 32-bit SQL Server Express 2005 and 64-bit SQL Server Express 2008.

I followed the steps by Josh Hinman above. Uninstalling the SQL Server Express 2005 "Workstation Components" was not enough. I required an uninstall of the 2005 Management Studio as well.

I also tried the Upgrade route that Josh Hinman suggested by clicking on the 'Upgrade from SQL Server 2000, SQL Server 2005 or SQL Server 2008'. This route never gave me the option of installing the components side-by-side it just went straight through the process of upgrading from 2005 to 2008. It completed successfully - but hadn't actually done anything. Thankfully though it hadn't harmed any existing database instances. So be warned trying that route.