DriveWorks Pro 24

How To: Restore a SQL Server Database (KB13010806)

How To: Restore a SQL Server Database

This topic demonstrates how to use SQL Server Management Studio to restore a database from a backup.

Please see the HowTo: Backup a SQL Server Database topic for information on backing up a SQL database.

Applies To:

• Microsoft SQL Server Express
• Microsoft SQL Server

Prerequisites

To perform the steps in this document SQL Server Management Studio is required.

Steps

Step 1		Start SQL Server Management studio and select the server to which you want to connect.
Step 2		Once you are connected, you should see a screen similar to the one on the left.
Step 3		Right click the "Databases" folder and choose "Restore Database..."
Step 4		The "Restore Database" dialog appears, click the "Device" option, and then click the button to the right of it (...)
Step 5		A dialog will appear to ask you for the file you wish to restore, make sure the drop down list is showing "File", and click "Add".
Step 6		Browse for the database backup file, and click "OK"
Step 7		The backup file will appear in the list, click "OK"
Step 8		Information about the backup will appear in list, make sure the correct backup is ticked (there might be more than one backup set in a single backup file).
Step 9		If you don't know the name of the original database, scroll the list to the right and it will be shown under the "Database" column.
Step 10		Choose either Option A or Option B below Option A - Restoring to a New Database Type the original name of the database into the "To database" text box at the top of the dialog. Option B - Restoring to Overwrite an Existing Database Please make sure any existing database being overwritten has been backed up prior to performing this operation. Select the database to be overwritten from the To database drop down Click Options from the Select a page section Check the option to Overwrite the existing database You are now ready to restore the database, click "OK".
Step 11		When the restore is complete, a message similar to the one on the left will appear.

Troubleshooting

There are a few things that can go wrong when restoring a database, the most common are described below.

You must select a restore source

This means that you didn't select any of the check boxes in the list on the main restore dialog.

Restore failed for Server...

It is fairly common to see the message below:

To resolve the problem, all you need to do is tell SQL Server to restore to a drive and directory that does exist.

Click the "Options" page on the main restore dialog:

Here you can see "SampleGroup" and "SampleGroup_log", the first of these is the database file that the restore wizard is going to create, the second is something called a transaction log file – don’t worry about what it does, all you need to do, is to make sure that the "Restore As" column contains valid paths – you can either browse for a correct path, or type one in.

Once you’ve picked valid locations, click OK again and the restore should succeed.