Microsoft® SQL Server 2012 Unleashed

Restoring a Snapshot

Database snapshots, which were introduced in SQL Server 2005, provide a fast method for capturing a transactionally consistent view of a database. The snapshot is created as another read-only database linked to the original database from which the snapshot was taken. As changes are made to the original database, the Database Engine uses a copy-on-write method to keep the snapshot consistent.

After a snapshot is taken, you can revert back to the snapshot at a later time and restore the original database to the state it was in when the snapshot was taken. You do not create the snapshot by backing up a database, but you can restore it using methods similar to restoring a backup. The following example shows the syntax to revert ...