Import data from Microsoft Access to SQL Server

Microsoft has made importing data from Access much easier using Access 2007 or above than previous versions. Running SSIS packages or using the Import/Export wizard seemed time consuming and often would error out requiring more troubleshooting than it’s worth. I’m using an Access database with two tables named Customers and Orders for this post:

SQL Freelancer SQL Server Microsoft Access IntegrationFirst, make sure all tables are closed within in our Access database or we’ll get an error:

SQL Freelancer SQL Server Microsoft Access IntegrationOnce all tables are closed navigate to Database Tools | SQL Server as shown below:

SQL Freelancer SQL Server Microsoft Access IntegrationAfter clicking SQL Server an Upsizing Wizard dialog box should appear. Since I don’t have a database created I will click “Create New Database” option as shown below.

SQL Freelancer SQL Server Microsoft Access IntegrationIf there was already a database in place clicking “Use existing database” will bring up a few screens to setup a data source to a preexisting database. After clicking next, we need to enter some information to connect to our SQL Server and create our database. When specifying the Login ID make sure this user has CREATE DATABASE permissions on the server. For this example I will use SQL2008 for my server and create a database called Bama:

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