Microsoft® SQL Server 2012 Unleashed

Have You Detached a Database Recently?

We suggest that you consider all methods of backup and recovery when dealing with DR. Another crude but extremely powerful method for creating a snapshot of a database (for any purpose, even for backup and recovery) is to simply detach the database and attach it in another location—pretty much anywhere. There will be some downtime during the detach time, the compressing of the database files (.mdf and .ldf), some time during the data transfer of these files (or single zipped file) from one location to another, some uncompress time, and the final attach time (seconds). All in all, it is a very reliable way to move an entire database from one place to another. This approach is crude, but fairly fast and extremely ...