OS Error: The OS storage system (RAM, CF, SD, or IPSM) is not responding.

Question

Hi

I've got a CE 3.5 database file that I can open in Visual Studio but whenever I try to access it from code I get a SqlCeException with the following message.

OS Error: The OS storage system (RAM, CF, SD, or IPSM) is not responding. Retry the operation.

I'm just running on a standard laptop with Windows 8 installed.

Any ideas what might be causing this?

Thanks

Ben

Answer 1

Could you share your connection string? It must be related to this, as Visual Studio uses the same ADO.NET provider to open the file. Is the file located on a local hard disk?

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Answer 2

Hi Ben,

Did you retry the operation?

When the database file is accessed before the block device driver (that allows you to access the database file) has started up after the device is restored from suspend mode, the issue may happen. You could try to apply the SQL Server Compact 3.5 Service Pack 1.

Please refer to http://support.microsoft.com/kb/919150
http://compsoftplc.blogspot.com/2009/05/combatting-error.html.

If you have any feedback on our support, please click here.

Thanks. 

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Maggie Luo
TechNet Community Support

Answer 3

Hi Guys

Thanks for replying.

@Maggie, I already have Service Pack 2 installed. Yes I did retry the operation, it failed again with the same error.

@Erik The connection string had a max database size setting in it. Removing that seems to have fixed the problem/given me a different error with my Entity Framework model. When I've resolved the issue with the model I'll be able to tell you if this was the issue.

Max Database Size=2047

Thanks

Ben

Answer 4

Okay, the very simple answer is this... the database file wasn't in the location the connection string was pointing to.