Installing and Using the Sample Files

The sample solution and database files require approximately 300 MB of disk space on your computer. To install and prepare the sample files for use with the exercises in this book, follow these steps:

1. Insert the companion CD into your CD-ROM drive.

   Note 

   If the presence of the CD-ROM is automatically detected and a Start window is displayed, you can skip to step 3.

2. Click the Start button, click Run, and then type D:\startcd in the Open box, replacing the drive letter with the correct letter for your CD-ROM drive if necessary.

3. Click Install Sample Files to launch the Setup program, and then follow the directions on the screen.

   The sample files will be copied from the CD-ROM to your local hard drive. The default installation folder is C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\My Documents \Microsoft Press\is2005sbs, where <username> is the logon name you use to operate your computer. You can change this installation folder to a different location and reference the new location when working through the exercises. For each chapter that uses sample files, you will find a corresponding folder in the is2005sbs folder. You'll be instructed where to find the appropriate sample files when an exercise requires the use of an existing file.

   Tip 

   In the My Documents\Microsoft Press\is2005sbs\Answers folder, you will find a separate folder for each chapter in which you make changes to the sample files. The files in these folders are sample projects in their completed state. You can refer to these files if you want to preview the results of an exercise after the steps have been completed. Because the project files are modified as you work through the chapter exercises, if you ever wish to begin an exercise over again, you will need to restore a backup of the project folder or manually copy and replace these files from the CD.

4. Remove the CD-ROM from the drive when installation is complete.

5. Use Windows Explorer to open My Documents\Microsoft Press\is2005sbs\Setup \Query and double-click to launch the  attach_databases.bat file. This will attach three SQL Server 2005 databases used throughout the book.

   This step attaches the SQL Server databases that are the data sources used in packages you will create and use throughout this book.

   Note 

   The  attach_databases.bat script will work only if these databases are not previously attached, SQL Server 2005 is running as a local default instance, and the user account you're logged in with has administrative rights on your database server. The student files must also be installed to the default My Documents path in order for this script to run correctly. If any of these conditions don't apply to your environment, you should use SQL Server Management Studio to manually attach all three databases located in the \Setup\Database folder.

   You're now ready to get started!