Microsoft SQL server or Access DB

[pushVTEC]

I'm in need of a database for the site i'm designing and ms sql server and an access db are the only options I have. I've done most of my work on mysql server and oracle in the past, and am pretty unfamiliar with the above. It's going to be a very straightforward database, just inserts and selects, which would you go with? Right now i'm leaning towards MS SQL Server since it seems to be pretty robust, that way if the site becomes accessed more and more I wont have to worry about going from access->sql server

 

[KLin]

If you think your site is going to get a lot more traffic in the future, definitely go with SQL server. It can handle multiple connections much better than MS access.

 

[Mark R]

I would recommend SQL server - it would make upgrading (if required in the future) much easier. It also has much better backup/restore capabilities than access, and running SQL server stored procedures is much, much faster than running access SQL queries (especially with ASP/ASP.NET which have highly optimised access to SQL server).

One particular thing that has saved my ass once is the ability to 'point in time' restore. E.g. you make a change at 09:30 which hoses something, but don't notice until 10:00 - you can restore the database to the point it was at 09:29, provided you have a recent full backup and an unbroken chain of transaction logs.

You may want to consider SQL server express (I think it's still in beta) which is basically a slightly crippled version of SQL server, but it's completely free - it's got all the security, backup, etc. features, but is limited to 1 CPU and 1 GB max database size.