How to work with backup files

Last modified: October 1, 2024

dbForge Studio for SQL Server provides an option of comparing data between backup files or between databases and backup files. This feature can be useful if you want, for example, to retrieve data from a backup file and compare it with your database without restoring or copying the backup from a remote network.

Compare and synchronize backup files

With dbForge Studio for SQL Server you can:

• compare a backup file with another backup file or with a database
• create a synchronization script from a backup
• If you set backup file as a target, the synchronization wizard creates a script to update the database from which the backup was created. Backup files cannot be modified directly.

If you set backup file as the source, and a database is the target, the database can be synchronized with the backup.

Compatibility with backup files

dbForge Studio for SQL Server supports:

• native SQL Server backups

If you want to set up a comparison with the backup files usage you should keep in mind that Data Compare for SQL Server does not support:

• tables that do not have a primary key, unique index, or unique constraint
• views
• computed columns, but you can compare persisted computed columns
• string representations of CLR types (only binary representation is supported)
• custom comparison keys, but you can select an alternative unique index, or unique constraint
• row filtering using the SQL Filter Editor.