/ SQL Backup & Restore

SQL Backup & Restore

Welcome to SQLDBA Generation, your online resource for SQL Server backup and recovery issues.  The articles are generally applicable to both SQL Server 2000, SQL Server 2005, SQL Server 2008, SQL Server 2008 R2 and SQL 2012.  If any parts are applicable only to a specific version, they will be clearly indicated.
The SQL Server Books Online documentation should still be your primary source of information on SQL Server.  The information presented here is more of a troubleshooting guide, a discussion of common issues faced by users, when dealing with SQL Server backup and recovery issues.
If there are any topics you would like me to add, or suggestions on improving the articles, please drop me a line venkat@sqldbageneration.com

Conventions
When a reference is made to a topic in the Books Online documentation, they are highlighted in bold blue, and the version of SQL Server they apply to is also stated.  E.g.  (Bulk-Logged Recovery [SQL2000], Backup Under the Bulk-Logged Recovery Model  [SQL2005]) means look for the 'Bulk-Logged Recovery' topic in the SQL Server 2000 documentation, or the 'Backup Under the Bulk Logged Recovery Model' in the SQL Server 2005 documentation.
Notes are highlighted this way, and are issues that are important to the current topic.
Code fragments are highlighted this way:
BACKUP DATABASE AdventureWorks TO DISK = 'G:\Backups\AdventureWorks.bak'
Output from SQL Server are highlighted this way:
Processed 20584 pages for database 'AdventureWorkds', file 'AdventureWorks_Data' on file 1.
Processed 2 pages for database 'AdventureWorkds', file 'AdventureWorks_Log' on file 1.
BACKUP DATABASE successfully processed 20586 pages in 10.101 seconds (16.694 MB/sec).
Database names are highlighted this way e.g. AdventureWorks, and tables are highlighted this way e.g.Vendor.
SQL Server commands are highlighted this way e.g. BACKUP LOG, and command options are highlighted this way e.g. WITH NORECOVERY.