change of database?

[DrasticAction]

hi Michael & community,

I was wondering if anyone can report what mcsSprinklers will do when I change the Database Option on the "Other Setup" page?

Here is the background:

I have mcsSprinklers (Pro licence) installed on a Windows Home Server (WS 2003) box. It is standalone (no HS) and has the original default db config where it sets up its own Access database in an .mdb file. I assume it keeps in there my 18 months of historical data.

Recently I have installed on the same machine SQL Server 2008 R2 Express Edition (free product from Microsoft!), where I am starting to collect soil moisture readings among other things. It would be useful to move mcsSprinklers across to use SQL Server to unify the data and make it easier to get access to the irrigation data from other machines on the network.

If I change the database option in mcsSprinklers to SQL Server, and do the required restart, will it create a new database from scratch and migrate the history in the mdb file to the new db?
If it will not migrate the data, is there a procedure for manually moving the historical data across to the new db? Are any specific techniques required to avoid disruption to mcsSprinklers? (other than shutting it down while I poke around in the db)
Is anyone familiar with running it on SQL Server, and have advice or warnings?

I'd be very grateful to benefit from others' experience!

[Michael McSharry]

When you change the database option you need to restart mcsSprinklers. It will start with a empty database. No build in facility exists to migrate an existing database, but tools should exist to make this easy and then you can keep your 18 months of data. I believe for SQL Server the local computer's SQL Source can be blank. There as some special rules for SQL Express.