Why does creating a SQLServer Compact table in Server Explorer not create an .SDF file on disk?

Question

I created an .sdf database in Visual Studio 2008 (not programmatically - using the MS Access-like wizard); I can see it, along with the one table that's in it, and that table's columns, in the Server Explorer, yet my project failed on trying to access it, saying the file did not exist - true, it doesn't! In fact, nowhere on the hard drive. How could that be? Where is it? How can I get what I see in Server Explorer to be written to disk?

Answer 1

A SQL Server Compact file always exists on disk