Can't connect to MySQL 2005 Express

I'm trying to upsize an Access database to SQL 2005 Express. When I follow the wizard and I've tried all ways of connecting to the database I get the following error

Connection failed
SQL State '01000'
SQL Server Error 53
[Microsoft] [ODBC SQL Server Driver][DBNETLIB] ConnectionOpen()).
Connection failed
SQL State '08001'
SQL Server Error 17
[Microsoft] [ODBC SQL Server Driver][DBNETLIB] SQL Server does not exist or access denied

I've tried using local host and typing the exact server connection string from the SQL Express Management tool and nothing is working

How come I can't do this? Everyone says this is easy and straight forward -- not for me.

The most common cause of this is using the wrong instance name. SQL Express installs by default to an instance name of SQLEXPRESS that you must specify when connecting. You can not use the machine name alone, or just (local) for example.

When the Upsize wizard asks for the server, specify

<machinename>\SQLEXPRESS

and see how that works.

Regards,

Mike Wachal
SQL Express team

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