Connect to MS Access database

[Bob Dankert]

What is going to be the best way to connect to a Microsoft Access database
using the dotnet framework 2.0? I know of two ways, but both seem to have
disadvantages:

First is using OLE to connect with the provider Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0.
The downside to using Jet is that it does not seem to work on Windows XP
64-bit and from what I have read Jet has been deprecated and is no longer
part of MDAC. My fear is that future OS's (Vista, for example) would then
no longer work. Also, I need this to work on 64-bit processors as well.

Second is to use the ODBC driver. The major downside to this is that this
tends to be much slower. I will be working with a few million records in
Access (no, I can't get the company to move their data to SQL) and really do
not want to deal with the overhead of ODBC.

So, it seems that there must be a simple way to connect to Microsoft Access
which will work on Windows XP 64-bit, which is not based off of a deprecated
technology, and which does not have speed constraints like ODBC.

Thanks for any suggestions,

Bob Dankert

 

[Scott M.]

JET hasn't been been bundled with MDAC for quite some time, but that doesn't
mean it has been deprecated at all. It's simply a separate
download/installation. I don't know about the 64 bit issue, but I would
guess it will be worked out since Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0 isn't going
anywhere anytime soon.

 

[Kevin Yu [MSFT]]

Hi Bob,

I'm sorry to tell you that Jet was deprecated before 64 bit took off, so
there will be no 64 bit Jet and no 64 bit Jet provider. The only way to
connect to an Access database on a 64bit Windows is to create an ODBC
connection(DSN) on the 32-bit side of the system. 32-bit applications will
only see ODBC connections created in the 32-bit side, and 64-bits
applications will only see ODBC connections from the 64-bit side. Each kind
of application has is own registry.

By the way, if you're trying to work on database projects on 64bit Windows
systems, I strongly suggest you move to SQL Exprss. It is supported by the
X64 system.

The following threads are also talking about this issue. I hope they can
provide you with more information.

http://groups.google.com/group/microsoft.public.data.ado/browse_thread/threa
d/bcea5d1f64b545ff/d87fcb64fac60c5a?lnk=st&q=&rnum=3#d87fcb64fac60c5a

http://groups.google.com/group/microsoft.public.access/browse_thread/thread/
2f53904091811b59/1b077d5a5feb7f05?lnk=st&q=&rnum=8#1b077d5a5feb7f05

If anything is unclear, please feel free to let me know.

Kevin Yu
Microsoft Online Community Support

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[Kevin Yu [MSFT]]

Sorry, Bob, I mean SQL Server instead of SQL Express in my last post. SQL
Express is supported on WOW64, but SQL Server is running natively on 64 bit
system.

Kevin Yu
Microsoft Online Community Support

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professional working with you may need further investigation to reach the
most efficient resolution. The offering is not appropriate for situations
that require urgent, real-time or phone-based interactions or complex
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[Robert Simpson]

If you need a lightweight, free database that supports x86, x64, ia64 and
even ARM (Pocket PC) then just check out SQLite:

http://sqlite.phxsoftware.com

 

[Bob Dankert]

Thanks for the replies Scott, Kevin, and Robert.

Robert, I already use Sqlite extensively, however as I said I can not move
my customer out of Access as they have millions of records and hundreds
(thousands?) of hours into managing the database - not my choice, but I'm
not going to donate my time to change it either.

Looks like I will be using the ODBC driver for this project. I appreciate
the feedback and suggestions from everyone.

Thanks!

Bob

 

[Kevin Yu [MSFT]]

You're welcome, Bob. Thanks for sharing your experience with all the people
here. If you have any questions, please feel free to post them in the
community.

Kevin Yu
Microsoft Online Community Support

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professional working with you may need further investigation to reach the
most efficient resolution. The offering is not appropriate for situations
that require urgent, real-time or phone-based interactions or complex
project analysis and dump analysis issues. Issues of this nature are best
handled working with a dedicated Microsoft Support Engineer by contacting
Microsoft Customer Support Services (CSS) at
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