Copying Databases from SQL Server 6.5 or Earlier
When you install SQL Server 2005, any existing databases are automatically upgraded. To copy an upgraded database, you can use any of the copy methods supported for SQL Server 2005 databases. For more information, see Copying Databases to Other Servers.
If a database that was created by using SQL Server 6.5 or earlier has not been upgraded to SQL Server 2005, you can convert it to SQL Server 2005 by using one of the following methods:
- Use the Integration Services (SSIS) Import and Export Wizard to copy data between multiple instances of SQL Server. For more information, see Creating Packages Using the SQL Server Import and Export Wizard.
- Migrate data from a SQL Server 6.0 or SQL Server 6.5 database by using bcpout to export the data into a data file in character mode Then, use bcpin with the -V option to import the data into a SQL Server 2005 database. For more information, see Importing Native and Character Format Data from Earlier Versions of SQL Server.
Note
Database backups that were created by using SQL Server 6.5 or earlier are in an incompatible format and cannot be restored in SQL Server 2005.
For information on using a SQL Server 6.5 database on SQL Server 2005, see sp_dbcmptlevel (Transact-SQL).
See Also
Tasks
How to: Upgrade to SQL Server 2005 with the Copy Database Wizard
Concepts
Copying Databases with Backup and Restore
Importing Native and Character Format Data from Earlier Versions of SQL Server
How to: Upgrade a Database Using Detach and Attach (Transact-SQL)
Other Resources
bcp Utility
How to: Upgrade to SQL Server 2005 (Setup)