I have been reading a LOT of google posts and StackOverflow questions about how to restore a database in SQL Server from a .bak file.
But none of them states how to just READ the tables in the database-backup. (None that I could find anyway?)
I just want to check out some old information which now has been deleted, without actually restoring the full database. Is this possible?
.
EDIT:
I just wanted to post my T-SQL solution to the problem, so others may use it and I can go back and look it up ;)
First I created a new database called backup_lookup
and took it offline.
After this I could restore my old database mydb
to the new one, without ever touching my original.
USE master
GO
RESTORE DATABASE backup_lookup
FROM DISK = 'D:\backup\mydb.bak'
WITH REPLACE,
MOVE 'mydb' TO 'C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL10_50.MSSQLSERVER\MSSQL\DATA\backup_lookup.mdf',
MOVE 'mydb_log' TO 'C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL10_50.MSSQLSERVER\MSSQL\DATA\backup_lookup_log.ldf'
GO
I hope this helps :)