On page 187 in "Visual c# 2005 Express Edition Starter Kit by Barker are instructions for connecting to SQL Express db. First CoffeeSQL.mdf is not on the CD sent with the book! So I had to use another .mdf and I'm not sure about it, ie, if it can be used with SQL Express. Anyway I get this error when I try to connect:

"Unable to open the physical file... Operating system error 32: "32(The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process.)" An attempt to attach an auto-named database for the file... failed. A database with the same name exits, or specified file cannot be opened, or it is located on UNC share."

Any ideas?

If you go to the book's site you can download the code for the book; CoffeeSQL.mdf is included in the download along with its log file. Other .mdf files should theoretically work with SQL Server but not being a DBA I really couldn't tell you what is causing your error.

http://www.wrox.com/WileyCDA/WroxTit...load_code.html

Yeah, that's what I thought too but there's not CoffeeSQL.mdf with the download! Where else can I look?