By default, it is not possible to connect Visual Studio 2005 to SQL Server 2008.
It will throw the following error message when you try to use VS 2005 Service Pack 1 design tools to open a database connection to Microsoft SQL Server 2008:
"This Server version is not supported. You must have Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Beta 2 or later"
You need to install the VS 2005 SP1 update for SQL Server 2008. You can download the update from the following link:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=e1109aef-1aa2-408d-aa0f-9df094f993bf&DisplayLang=en
For more details, visit http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=e1109aef-1aa2-408d-aa0f-9df094f993bf&DisplayLang=en
article from ://http://www.dotnetspider.com/resources/28621-Problem-connecting-VS-SQL-Server.aspx