Posted by Dan Guzman on 05/26/05 02:55

A restored database is the same size as the original database so you'll need
that amount of free space for the restore. You can determine the amount of
space required with RESTORE FILELISTONLY. For example:

RESTORE FILELISTONLY
FROM DISK='C:\MyBackupFile.bak'

Note that the backup file may be considerably smaller since unused data
pages are not backed up.

--
Hope this helps.

Dan Guzman
SQL Server MVP

<EggsAckley@Last.com> wrote in message
news:mbt9915ei2t78eueqcmudmfdaomv68oujv@4ax.com...
> Hi:
>
> I have a file that I have been told is a SQL Server backup from a
> server somewhere. The file is about 200MB in size
>
> I am trying to create the database on my local server using RESTORE. I
> created the backup device, associated it with a backup name etc.,
> copied the file into the backup dir.
>
> When I run the RESTORE command, Query Analyzer tells me the database
> needs 31 GB of space and the RESTORE aborts. I've tried this several
> times, get the same result every time.
>
> Anybody ever seen anything like this? Is there another way to create a
> DB in a server using a backup file?
>
> I am running SqlServer 2000, Developer edition on a machine running
> Windows Server 2003 OS.
>
> I would appreciate any help/suggestions.
>
> Waz

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