Re: Multi-Boot and sharing MSDE data?

From: Andrea Montanari (andrea.sqlDMO_at_virgilio.it)
Date: 01/20/05 

Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2005 11:25:18 +0100

hi Charles,
Charles E Finkenbiner wrote:
> Hi All,
>
> I multi-boot different versions of Windows. I would like to install
> MSDE programs on the C: drive of each Windows version, no problem
> there. But, I would like to share a common location for the MSDE
> data files.
>
> Currently the MSDE installation aborts if it finds data already
> installed in the DataDir.
>
> Is there any way to share a DataDir location?

it's not a very good idea even if only one of the multi-OS is loaded at each
time... a SQL Server database is not just a set of files, but a logical
object to, registered in the server system tables with lot of information...
your best move is to attach/detach the database(s) you are interested in at
every boot/shutdown, becouse you could experience logical problems using
this kind of path...
you could share this way your user's databases, but not the system
databases, so you do are not allowed to share the DataDir among instances...
but you can share a private (local) folder which hosts your user's
databases...
you only need to create your db in that folder, say c:\databases\ , and
attach the dbs from the other OSload referencing that folder...
but each instance on each OS will always have it's own seaprated DataDir... 

-- 
Andrea Montanari (Microsoft MVP - SQL Server)
http://www.asql.biz/DbaMgr.shtm        http://italy.mvps.org
DbaMgr2k ver 0.9.1  -  DbaMgr ver 0.55.1
(my vb6+sql-dmo little try to provide MS MSDE 1.0 and MSDE 2000 a visual
interface)
--------- remove DMO to reply

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