Overview
There are several RESTORE commands and options that can be used to restore and view the contents of your backup files.
Explanation
In this next section, we will look at the following commands that can be used:
- RESTORE HEADERONLY – gives you a list of all the backups in a file
- RESTORE LABELONLY – gives you the backup media information
- RESTORE FILELISTONLY – gives you a list of all of the files that were backed up for a give backup
- RESTORE DATABASE – allows you to restore a full, differential, file or filegroup backup
- RESTORE LOG – allows you to restore a transaction log backup
- RESTORE VERIFYONLY – verifies that the backup is readable by the RESTORE process
Take the time to get to understand what options are available and what can be done using SQL Server Management Studio, and what options are only available via T-SQL commands.
Greg Robidoux has been working with databases for 35+ years with extensive hands on SQL Server experience from version 6.5 to 2025. He has authored over 250 technical articles and delivered several presentations online and at various conventions. Greg is also the President and founder of Edgewood Solutions, a technology services company delivering services and solutions for Microsoft SQL Server.
