SQL Server supports a variety of restore scenarios:

• Complete database restore
  Restores the entire database, beginning with a full database backup, which may be followed by restoring a differential database backup (and log backups). For more information, see Performing a Complete Database Restore (Simple Recovery Model) or Performing a Complete Database Restore (Full Recovery Model).
  
• File restore
  Restores a file or filegroup in a multi-filegroup database. Note that under the simple recovery model, the file must belong to a read-only filegroup. After a full file restore, a differential file backup can be restored. For more information, see Performing File Restores (Full Recovery Model) and Performing File Restores (Simple Recovery Model).
  
• Page restore
  Restores individual pages. Page restore is available only under the full and bulk-logged recovery models. For more information, see Performing Page Restores.
  
• Piecemeal restore
  Restores the database in stages, beginning with the primary filegroup and one or more secondary filegroups. A piecemeal restore begins with a RESTORE DATABASE using the PARTIAL option and specifying one or more secondary filegroups to be restored. For more information, see Performing Piecemeal Restores.
  
• Recovery only
  Recovers data that is already consistent with the database and needs only to be made available. For more information, see Recovering a Database Without Restoring Data.
  
• Transaction log restore.
  Under the full or bulk-logged recovery model, restoring log backups is required to reach the desired recovery point. For more information about restoring log backups, see Applying Transaction Log Backups.
  
• Create a mirror database.
  For more information, see How to: Prepare a Mirror Database for Mirroring (Transact-SQL).
  
• Create and maintain a standby server. For more information about standby servers, see Using Warm Standby Servers.
  

The following keywords have been discontinued in SQL Server 2008:

To restore a database that is encrypted, you must have access to the certificate or asymmetric key that was used to encrypt the database. Without the certificate or asymmetric key, the database cannot be restored. As a result, the certificate that is used to encrypt the database encryption key must be retained as long as the backup is needed. For more information, see SQL Server Certificates and Asymmetric Keys.

Backup and restore work correctly with the vardecimal storage format. For more information about vardecimal storage format, see Storing Decimal Data As Variable Length.

Roll back is controlled by the RESTORE statement through the [ RECOVERY | NORECOVERY ] options:

• NORECOVERY specifies that roll back not occur. This allows roll forward to continue with the next statement in the sequence.
  In this case, the restore sequence can restore other backups and roll them forward.
  
• RECOVERY (the default) indicates that roll back should be performed after roll forward is completed for the current backup.
  Recovering the database requires that the entire set of data being restored (the roll forward set) is consistent with the database. If the roll forward set has not been rolled forward far enough to be consistent with the database and RECOVERY is specified, the Database Engine issues an error.
  

Undoing the effects of a restore is not possible; however, you can negate the effects of the data copy and roll forward by starting over on a per-file basis. To start over, restore the desired file and perform the roll forward again. For example, if you accidentally restored too many log backups and overshot your intended stopping point, you would have to restart the sequence.

A restore sequence can be aborted and restarted by restoring the entire contents of the affected files.

Full-text data is restored together with other database data during a complete restore. Using the regular RESTORE DATABASE database_name FROM backup_device syntax, the full-text files are restored as part of the database file restore.

The RESTORE statement also can be used to perform restores to alternate locations, differential restores, file and filegroup restores, and differential file and filegroup restores of full-text data. In addition, RESTORE can restore full-text files only, as well as with database data.

Note:
Full-text catalogs imported from SQL Server 2005 or SQL Server 2000 are still treated as database files. For these, the SQL Server 2005 procedure for backing up full-text catalogs remains applicable, except that pausing and resuming during the backup operation are no longer necessary. For more information, see Backing Up and Restoring Full-Text Catalogs in SQL Server 2005 Books Online.

During a restore, most of the database options that are settable using ALTER DATABASE are reset to the values in force at the time of the end of backup.

Note:
This behavior differs from versions of SQL Server before SQL Server 2000.

Using the WITH RESTRICTED_USER option, however, overrides this behavior for the user access option setting. This setting is always set following a RESTORE statement, which includes the WITH RESTRICTED_USER option.

SQL Server includes backup and restore history tables that track the backup and restore activity for each server instance. When a restore is performed, the backup history tables are also modified. For information on these tables, see Viewing Information About Backups.

RESTORE LOG can include a file list to allow for creation of files during roll forward. This is used when the log backup contains log records written when a file was added to the database.

Note:

For a database using the full or bulk-logged recovery model, in most cases you must back up the tail of the log before restoring the database. Restoring a database without first backing up the tail of the log results in an error, unless the RESTORE DATABASE statement contains either the WITH REPLACE or the WITH STOPAT clause, which must specify a time or transaction that occurred after the end of the data backup. For more information about tail-log backups, see Tail-Log Backups.

Note:
Online restore is allowed only in SQL Server 2005 Enterprise Edition and later versions.

Where online restore is supported, if the database is online, file restores and page restores are automatically online restores and, also, restores of secondary filegroup after the initial stage of a piecemeal restore.

Note:
Online restores can involve deferred transactions.

For more information, see Performing Online Restores.

Piecemeal restore, which was new in SQL Server 2005, enhances Microsoft SQL Server 2000 partial restore. Piecemeal restore allows filegroups to be restored after an initial, partial restore of the primary and some of the secondary filegroups. Filegroups that are not restored are marked as offline and are not accessible. The offline filegroups, however, can be restored later by a file restore. To allow the entire database to be restored in stages at different times, piecemeal restore maintain checks to ensure that the database will be consistent in the end.

Note:
In SQL Server 2000, a partial restore can only be done from a full database backup. This restriction was removed in SQL Server 2005.

If a partial restore sequence excludes any FILESTREAM filegroup, point-in-time restore is not supported. You can force the restore sequence to continue. However, the FILESTREAM filegroups that are omitted from your RESTORE statement can never be restored. To force a point-in-time restore, specify the CONTINUE_AFTER_ERROR option together with the STOPAT, STOPATMARK, or STOPBEFOREMARK option, which you must also specify in your subsequent RESTORE LOG statements. If you specify CONTINUE_AFTER_ERROR, the partial restore sequence succeeds and the FILESTREAM filegroup becomes unrecoverable.

For more information about piecemeal restore, see Performing Piecemeal Restores.

A revert database operation (specified using the DATABASE_SNAPSHOT option) takes a full source database back in time by reverting it to the time of a database snapshot, that is, overwriting the source database with data from the point in time maintained in the specified database snapshot. Only the snapshot to which you are reverting can currently exist. The revert operation then rebuilds the log (therefore, you cannot later roll forward a reverted database to the point of user error).

Data loss is confined to updates to the database since the snapshot's creation. The metadata of a reverted database is the same as the metadata at the time of snapshot creation. However, reverting to a snapshot drops all the full-text catalogs.

Reverting from a database snapshot is not intended for media recovery. Unlike a regular backup set, the database snapshot is an incomplete copy of the database files. If either the database or the database snapshot is corrupted, reverting from a snapshot is likely to be impossible. Furthermore, even when possible, reverting in the event of corruption is unlikely to correct the problem.

Restrictions on Reverting

The following example restores a full database backup from the AdventureWorksBackups logical backup device. For an example of creating this device, see Backup Devices.

RESTORE DATABASE AdventureWorks 
   FROM AdventureWorksBackups

Note:
For a database using the full or bulk-logged recovery model, SQL Server requires in most cases that you back up the tail of the log before restoring the database. For more information, see Tail-Log Backups.

[Top of examples]

The following example restores a full database backup followed by a differential backup from the Z:\SQLServerBackups\AdventureWorks.bak backup device, which contains both backups. The full database backup to be restored is the sixth backup set on the device (FILE = 6), and the differential database backup is the ninth backup set on the device (FILE = 9). As soon as the differential backup is recovered, the database is recovered.

RESTORE DATABASE AdventureWorks
   FROM DISK = 'Z:\SQLServerBackups\AdventureWorks.bak'
   WITH FILE = 6
      NORECOVERY;
RESTORE DATABASE AdventureWorks
   FROM DISK = 'Z:\SQLServerBackups\AdventureWorks.bak'
   WITH FILE = 9
      RECOVERY;

[Top of examples]

The following example uses the RESTART option to restart a RESTORE operation interrupted by a server power failure.

-- This database RESTORE halted prematurely due to power failure.
RESTORE DATABASE AdventureWorks
   FROM AdventureWorksBackups
-- Here is the RESTORE RESTART operation.
RESTORE DATABASE AdventureWorks 
   FROM AdventureWorksBackups WITH RESTART

[Top of examples]

The following example restores a full database and transaction log and moves the restored database into the C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL10.MSSQLSERVER\MSSQL\Data directory.

RESTORE DATABASE AdventureWorks
   FROM AdventureWorksBackups
   WITH NORECOVERY, 
      MOVE 'AdventureWorks_Data' TO 
'C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL10.MSSQLSERVER\MSSQL\Data\NewAdvWorks.mdf', 
      MOVE 'AdventureWorks_Log' 
TO 'C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL10.MSSQLSERVER\MSSQL\Data\NewAdvWorks.ldf'
RESTORE LOG AdventureWorks
   FROM AdventureWorksBackups
   WITH RECOVERY

[Top of examples]

The following example uses both the BACKUP and RESTORE statements to make a copy of the AdventureWorks database. The MOVE statement causes the data and log file to be restored to the specified locations. The RESTORE FILELISTONLY statement is used to determine the number and names of the files in the database being restored. The new copy of the database is named TestDB. For more information, see RESTORE FILELISTONLY (Transact-SQL).

BACKUP DATABASE AdventureWorks 
   TO AdventureWorksBackups ;

RESTORE FILELISTONLY 
   FROM AdventureWorksBackups ;

RESTORE DATABASE TestDB 
   FROM AdventureWorksBackups 
   WITH MOVE 'AdventureWorks_Data' TO 'C:\MySQLServer\testdb.mdf',
   MOVE 'AdventureWorks_Log' TO 'C:\MySQLServer\testdb.ldf';
GO

[Top of examples]

The following example restores a database to its state as of 12:00 AM on April 15, 2020 and shows a restore operation that involves multiple log backups. On the backup device, AdventureWorksBackups, the full database backup to be restored is the third backup set on the device (FILE = 3), the first log backup is the fourth backup set (FILE = 4), and the second log backup is the fifth backup set (FILE = 5).

RESTORE DATABASE AdventureWorks
   FROM AdventureWorksBackups
   WITH FILE=3, NORECOVERY;

RESTORE LOG AdventureWorks
   FROM AdventureWorksBackups
   WITH FILE=4, NORECOVERY, STOPAT = 'Apr 15, 2020 12:00 AM';

RESTORE LOG AdventureWorks
   FROM AdventureWorksBackups
   WITH FILE=5, NORECOVERY, STOPAT = 'Apr 15, 2020 12:00 AM';
RESTORE DATABASE AdventureWorks WITH RECOVERY; 

[Top of examples]

The following example restores the transaction log to the mark in the marked transaction named ListPriceUpdate.

USE AdventureWorks
GO
BEGIN TRANSACTION ListPriceUpdate
   WITH MARK 'UPDATE Product list prices';
GO

UPDATE Production.Product
   SET ListPrice = ListPrice * 1.10
   WHERE ProductNumber LIKE 'BK-%';
GO

COMMIT TRANSACTION ListPriceUpdate;
GO

-- Time passes. Regular database 
-- and log backups are taken.
-- An error occurs in the database.
USE master
GO

RESTORE DATABASE AdventureWorks
FROM AdventureWorksBackups
WITH FILE = 3, NORECOVERY;
GO

RESTORE LOG AdventureWorks
   FROM AdventureWorksBackups 
   WITH FILE = 4,
   RECOVERY, 
   STOPATMARK = 'ListPriceUpdate';

[Top of examples]

The following example restores a full database backup from a TAPE backup device.

RESTORE DATABASE AdventureWorks 
   FROM TAPE = '\\.\tape0'

[Top of examples]

The following example restores a database named MyDatabase that has two files, one secondary filegroup, and one transaction log. The database uses the full recovery model.

The database backup is the ninth backup set in the media set on a logical backup device named MyDatabaseBackups. Next, three log backups, which are in the next three backup sets (10, 11, and 12) on the MyDatabaseBackups device, are restored by using WITH NORECOVERY. After restoring the last log backup, the database is recovered.

Note:
Recovery is performed as a separate step to reduce the possibility of you recovering too early, before all of the log backups have been restored.

In the RESTORE DATABASE, notice that there are two types of FILE options. The FILE options preceding the backup device name specify the logical file names of the database files that are to be restored from the backup set; for example, FILE = 'MyDatabase_data_1'. This backup set is not the first database backup in the media set; therefore, its position in the media set is indicated by using the FILE option in the WITH clause, FILE=9.

RESTORE DATABASE MyDatabase
   FILE = 'MyDatabase_data_1',
   FILE = 'MyDatabase_data_2',
   FILEGROUP = 'new_customers'
   FROM MyDatabaseBackups
   WITH 
      FILE = 9,
      NORECOVERY;
GO
-- Restore the log backups.
RESTORE LOG MyDatabase
   FROM MyDatabaseBackups
   WITH FILE = 10, 
      NORECOVERY;
GO
RESTORE LOG MyDatabase
   FROM MyDatabaseBackups
   WITH FILE = 11, 
      NORECOVERY;
GO
RESTORE LOG MyDatabase
   FROM MyDatabaseBackups
   WITH FILE = 12, 
      NORECOVERY;
GO
--Recover the database:
RESTORE DATABASE MyDatabase WITH RECOVERY;
GO

[Top of examples]

The following example reverts a database to a database snapshot. The example assumes that only one snapshot currently exists on the database. For an example of how to create this database snapshot, see How to: Create a Database Snapshot (Transact-SQL).

Note:
Reverting to a snapshot drops all the full-text catalogs.

USE master  
RESTORE DATABASE AdventureWorks FROM DATABASE_SNAPSHOT = 'AdventureWorks_dbss1800';
GO

For more information, see Reverting to a Database Snapshot.

[Top of examples]