Failing to restore my differential backup

  • I have Sunday full backup and differential backups. I can restore Fullbackup file but when I go to restore Friday's differential I get this error:

    File macdata is not in the correct state to have this differential backup applied to it.

    RESTORE DATABASE is terminating abnormally

    Please tell me what am I doing wrong.

    Thank god this is only a Fire drill !!!

    Raghu


    Raghu

  • Can you post your SQL statement for the restoration?

    You should restore full database with 'norecovery' option and then restore the differential backup with 'recovery' option.

    For example,

    restore database pubs from disk = 'c:\pubs.bak' with norecovery

    restore database pubs from disk = 'c:\pubs_differential.bak' with recovery

  • Thanks I will try that, one more question...recovery is cumulative is'nt it.

    I can go to Sunday's full back up file recover it with norecovery option then jump to Friday's differential and recover it with 'with recovery' option. Please correct me if I am wrong.

    Thanks

    Raghu


    Raghu

  • Raghu,

    Restores are sequential. So, you can restore a differential and/or transaction log backups as long as they 'belong' to the full backup that you restored. But you must remember to set WITH NORECOVERY on all but the last restore.

    -SQLBill

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