I’m getting an error when trying to restore my database from a backup file. The error message says the backup contains a different database than what currently exists.
I’m working with SQL Server 2008 and the backup file was created in SQL Server 2005. Has anyone encountered this issue before? I’m not sure what’s causing this problem or how to fix it.
The restore operation fails every time with this same error. Is there something I need to do differently when restoring from an older version? Any help would be appreciated.
Hmm, interesting. Are you restoring over an existing database or creating a fresh one? What’s the exact error code you’re getting? The jump from 2005 to 2008 sometimes causes weird compatibility issues, even tho it should work. Did you check if the backup file is corrupted?
This usually happens when you’re restoring over an existing database with a different name or when the logical files conflict. Since you’re going from SQL Server 2005 to 2008, I’d restore to a new database name first, then rename it later if you need to. Use WITH REPLACE in your restore command, but make sure you specify WITH MOVE parameters to redirect the logical file names to the right physical paths. Run RESTORE FILELISTONLY on your backup file to see the logical names, then map them properly in your restore statement. I’ve used this approach before and it fixes these version migration problems.
had this issue b4, too! i found that usin SSMS’s GUI is way simpler than T-SQL for restorations. it usually sorts out those versioning bumps. and double check your target db’s collation as it can mess things up otherwise.