Getting ready for first Great Plains 8.0 upgrade

I'm preparing for my first upgrade on a Great Plains 8.0 system. Luckily its a small client who doesn't have any fancy modules or third parties, just GL and AP. Along with FRx Financial Reports.

The interesting part of this upgrade is that they are currently running Dynamics 5.0 on Btrieve. Yes, Btrieve! Remember the good ol' days of Btrieve Error 20's? I sure do. (Bonus Tip: Did you know that it IS possible to run Dynamics 5.0 on Pervasive rather than Btrieve? There are a few Pervasive DLL's that you need to delete which will allow it to function more like Btrieve and Dynamics 5.0 will be happy. Leave some Comments down below on this post if you are interested in getting the details.)

So i'll be making several "hops" during this upgrade. Here is my upgrade path.

Dynamics 5.0 on Btrieve -> Dynamics 6.0 on Pervasive SQL 2000
Dynamics 6.0 on Pervasive -> Great Plains Standard 7.5 on Pervasive
GP Std 7.5 on Pervasive -> GP Std 7.5 on MSDE
GP Std 7.5 on MSDE -> GP Std 8.0 on MSDE

Whew - I'm exhausted just typing it in! While i'm working on this, i'll be sure to note if I run into anything new with the 8.0 upgrade process. I've read over the new 8.0 update manuals and nothing different really jumped out at me.

So check back here at Tech Roundup later this week and i'll let you all know how it went. Wish me luck!

Jason