Destination Database

This topic describes the Restore wizard page for specifying the destination database.

Restoring to an existing database

To restore the backups to an existing database, select Overwrite existing database and select the database. Note that any existing files that cannot be verified as belonging to the database being restored will be overwritten.

If you are restoring a full database backup or a filegroup backup, you can select any existing database. If you are restoring a differential database backup or a transaction log backup, only those databases that are in an 'unrecovered' or 'standby' state are available for selection.

If you select an existing database that is:

• is in an 'unrecovered' or 'standby' state
  
• or is not in an 'unrecovered' or 'standby' state, but uses Simple recovery model (full or filegroup backups only)

there is no requirement that you back up the tail of the log before you restore the database. This is equivalent to using the REPLACE option in a Transact-SQL RESTORE statement. Refer to your SQL Server documentation for full details.

If you select a database that is not in an 'unrecovered' or 'standby' state but uses Full or Bulk-Logged recovery model (full or filegroup backups only), when you click Next SQL Backup Manager displays a page asking you whether you want to back up the tail of the log to capture all the transaction log records that have not already been backed up:

• To back up the tail of the transaction log, click Backup up the transaction log before proceeding with the restore, and then click Back Up Now.
• A wizard is displayed for you to enter the backup settings you require. See Creating Backups for details. When you click Finish on the wizard, the transaction log is backed up. Click Close on the message box, and then click Next to proceed with the Restore wizard.

Refer to your SQL Server documentation for more information about backing up the tail of the transaction log.

If you do not want to back up the tail of the transaction log, click Discard transactions in the tail of the transaction log and click Next to proceed with the Restore wizard.

Restoring to a new database

If you are restoring a full database backup, you can select Create new database to create a new database. Type a name for the database in the box. To change the location in which the data files and the log file are created, click next to the file or folder and specify the location. Note that you must ensure that you have sufficient free space in the new location.s