Converting a SQL Server CE 4 database to SQL Server 2008 Express without editing Visual Studio Pro

Question

I am mainly a foreground developer, but also doing a lot of CMS configuration items. I have a CMS that is configured in a development environment using SQL Server CE 4. I would like to move this to production using SQL Server Express 2008. However, it is difficult for me to migrate the database from CE to 2008.

I tried Webmatrix, but it just seems that the timeout is silent and lock the destination database (the data is not huge - about 50 MB). I also tried this: http://sqlcetoolbox.codeplex.com/ , but it requires either command line skills (which I just don’t have - I tried but I don’t know what I am doing) or Visual Studio Pro edition, which is about £ 800. It works using SQL Server Management Studio, but only with SQLCE3.5, not 4.0. I cannot justify the price of Visual Studio Pro to convert a freely available database format to another freely available database format.

Does anyone know that someone without command line skills or a full VS license can do this conversion?

Thanks for helping people - I spend so much on this :(

Answer 1

But the excellent SQL Server CE Toolbox on Codeplex also has a standalone GUI!

Project Description
SQL Server Compact Toolbox is Visual Studio 2010 Pro or higher (for 3.5 / 4.0) and a standalone application (for 4.0) , it adds script, import, export, migration , rename, run script, replication management and much more to your SQL Server Compact Data Connections in VS Server Explorer.

Sounds to me exactly what you are looking for!

See the download section - Visual Studio is not required, no command line skills - you just need to be able to read the screen and control the mouse - that’s all! :-)