Copy Databases to Other Servers
Article • • 2 minutes to read • 6 contributors
Applies to: SQL Server (all supported versions)
It is sometimes useful to copy a database from one computer to another,
whether for testing, checking consistency, developing software, running
reports, creating a mirror database, or, possibly, to make the database
available to remote-branch operations.
There are several ways to copy a database:
• Using the Copy Database Wizard
You can use the Copy Database Wizard to copy or move databases
between servers or to upgrade a SQL Server database to a later version.
For more information, see Use the Copy Database Wizard.
• Restoring a database backup
To copy an entire database, you can use the BACKUP and RESTORE
Transact-SQL statements. Typically, restoring a full backup of a database
is used to copy the database from one computer to another for a variety
of reasons. For information on using backup and restore to copy a
database, see Copy Databases with Backup and Restore.
Note
To set up a mirror database for database mirroring, you must restore the
database onto the mirror server by using RESTORE DATABASE
<database_name> WITH NORECOVERY. For more information, see
Prepare a Mirror Database for Mirroring (SQL Server).
• Using the Generate Scripts Wizard to publish databases
You can use the Generate Scripts Wizard to transfer a database from a
local computer to a Web hosting provider. For more information, see
Generate and Publish Scripts Wizard.
