Geodatabases built with previous versions of ArcGIS do not support some of the newer functions of ArcGIS. If your geodatabase was developed using a previous version of ArcGIS, you may want to upgrade it. Upgrading a file or personal geodatabase is optional in most cases, but if you do not upgrade, you will not have access to newer functionality.
Once a geodatabase has been upgraded, most older versions of ArcGIS will be unable to open it since older versions of ArcGIS cannot read newer versions of the geodatabase.
There are two exceptions to this rule:
- ArcGIS 9.2 Service Pack 5 (SP5) can open and edit a 9.3 geodatabase. However, 9.2 SP5 will not be able to open, edit, or create datasets containing new functionality available with ArcGIS 9.3, such as creating a terrain with a Window Size pyramid format or a network dataset with an attribute that uses the 9.3 global turn delay and network function evaluators.
- ArcGIS 9.0 can open and edit a 9.1 geodatabase.
You may want to make a copy of the geodatabase and upgrade the copy so you have both an original and an upgraded version. This is not unique to file and personal geodatabases; you should also make a backup copy of ArcSDE geodatabases before upgrading them as well.
