Personal Database; Versioned or Standalone?

[ChadCarlson]

I am being asked if our Personal Geodatabase is Versioned or Standalone. When I click on the Database Properties, I only see where it says its a "Personal Geodatabase", and nothing that would indicate more.

Any suggestions on how to tell the difference? I am not a Tech Savvy person. 

Thank you,

Chad

[JoeBorgione · Accepted solution]

A personal geodatabase is just an Access database with some custom tables built in for/by ESRI.  This is not a versioned database.  These are still available and viable with ArcGIS/ArcMap/ArcCatalog, however, ArcGIS Pro cannot use them.

A personal SDE geodatabase is a SQL Server Express database and it can be versioned.

[JoshuaBixby]

I can't remember when exactly Esri adopted the current name, but "personal SDE geodatabase" is now "desktop geodatabase."  Database server vocabulary—Help | ArcGIS Desktop 

Database server	Within ArcGIS software, the term database server refers to an instance of Microsoft SQL Server Express that has been enabled to store desktop or workgroup geodatabases.
Desktop geodatabases	Geodatabases on a database server that are licensed through ArcGIS Desktop are referred to as desktop geodatabases. Desktop geodatabases can be accessed by a few users and edited by one user at a time
Workgroup geodatabases	Geodatabases on a database server that are licensed through ArcGIS Server Workgroup are referred to as workgroup geodatabases. Workgroup geodatabases can be accessed by up to 10 users at a time, all of whom can be editing concurrently. You can also use web services and applications to access data in workgroup geodatabases.

[JoeBorgione]

My age shows through from time to time.  I still call it E-S-R-I , to EZRIE....

[Asrujit_SenGupta]

A geodatabase cannot be Versioned or Un-Versioned. It is the data inside the Geodatabase, which can be Registered as Versioned.

The concept of Versioned data is only applicable for SDE geodatabases, and not for File geodatabase(*.gdb) or Personal geodatabase(*.mdb).

[TedKowal]

As Joe stated, MSAccess cannot be versioned naively.  Howeever, almost full version control can be achieved by using the access MSSCCI extensions and MS Access Developer Tools.  Now you can map one to one the files in MS Access source control with all the objects within the actual database.  Now you can rebuild the MS Access database from any version.  Yes there are some limitations but versioning can be done.  For more information you can go here: So You Want to Version Your Access Database - Simon Online 

[ChadCarlson]

Thank you all for the information! We have worked through our situation.

Much appreciated!

Chad