Do I stand a chance of being sucessful?

I'm basically a newbie; I understand the concepts of basic computer
management, databases, networks, and programming. But, I'm not experienced
in Sequel or MSDE.
I'm helping a friend who recently purchased a small service business (a
sports gym) that manages all the membership details using software that uses
MSDE. The current club management software is about 4 years old, it's
limping along without too many problems. The company that wrote the
software didn't survive the .com implosion, so I have very little
information on the product nor anyone to ask.
If his server was to die, he'd be SOL. I want to start 'backing up' the
data in a format I can use to import into potential replacement software (I
have no way to recreate the existing environment).
Is this possible? Without any information on the database (names,
passwords, field, layout, etc), is it possible to create a flat file that
contains the basic membership data (names, address, status, membership type,
etc). (the existing software does not have this capability) I'm assuming
that the future software will allow me to import such a file. I this too
big of a task for a newbie?
Thanks for your time in advance...
It is definitely doable. You need some very basic knowledge on SQL
Server/MSDE. MSDE is a free version of SQL Server, so your problem is MSDE
does not come with a GUI tool. However, armed with basic SQL Server/MSDE
knowledge, you can use Access to connect to MSDE (either *.mdb or *.adp
file), and to view/modify/export data in the said MSDE database.
"The Dodger" <someone@.somewhere.com> wrote in message
news:%23EVc37K4FHA.2352@.TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...
> I'm basically a newbie; I understand the concepts of basic computer
> management, databases, networks, and programming. But, I'm not
> experienced in Sequel or MSDE.
> I'm helping a friend who recently purchased a small service business (a
> sports gym) that manages all the membership details using software that
> uses MSDE. The current club management software is about 4 years old,
> it's limping along without too many problems. The company that wrote the
> software didn't survive the .com implosion, so I have very little
> information on the product nor anyone to ask.
> If his server was to die, he'd be SOL. I want to start 'backing up' the
> data in a format I can use to import into potential replacement software
> (I have no way to recreate the existing environment).
> Is this possible? Without any information on the database (names,
> passwords, field, layout, etc), is it possible to create a flat file that
> contains the basic membership data (names, address, status, membership
> type, etc). (the existing software does not have this capability) I'm
> assuming that the future software will allow me to import such a file. I
> this too big of a task for a newbie?
> Thanks for your time in advance...
>
>
sql