SQL Server Backup and Restore - Simple Talk

Chapter 7: Differential Backup and Restore
Native T-SQL differential restore
We're now going to perform a second differential restore, this time using T-SQL
scripts. While we could perform this operation in a single script, we're going to split
it out into two scripts so that we can see, more clearly than we could during the GUI
restore, the exact steps of the process. Once again, our restore will overwrite the existing
DatabaseForDiffBackups database. The first step will restore the base backup,
containing 100,000 rows, and leave the database in a "restoring" state. The second step
will restore the second differential backup file (_Diff_Native_2.bak), containing all
the rows changed or added since the base backup (10,000 rows from the second data
load and another 100,000 from the third), and then recover the database, returning it
to a usable state.
Without further ado, let's restore the base backup file, using the script in Listing 7-8.
USE [master]
GO
RESTORE DATABASE [DatabaseForDiffBackups]
FROM DISK = N'C:\SQLBackups\Chapter7\DatabaseForDiffBackups_Full_Native.bak'
WITH NORECOVERY, STATS = 10
GO
Listing 7-8: Base full database backup restore.
Notice the WITH NORECOVERY argument, meaning that we wish to leave the database in
a restoring state, ready to receive further backup files. Also note that we did not specify
REPLACE since it is not needed here, since DatabaseForDiffBackups is a SIMPLE
recovery model database.
Having executed the script, refresh your object explorer window and you should see that
the DatabaseForDiffBackups database now displays a Restoring… message, as shown
in Figure 7-9.
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