Read Backup File Directly?

Is there a way to read a backup file to see if it contains a file without
restoring the backup file? We are missing a record from a table, and I need
to find out when it was deleted. We have nightly backup files of the
database. Is it possible, knowing the database name, the table name, and the
primary key value of the record, to determine if the record exists in a
certain backup file? If not, is there an alternate way to determine when a
particular record was deleted?

Thank you!

Neil

Re: Read Backup File Directly?

Neil (nospam@nospam.net) writes:
> Is there a way to read a backup file to see if it contains a file
> without restoring the backup file?

You can use RESTORE FILELISTONLY to list the backups within a backup file.

> We are missing a record from a table, and I need to find out when it was
> deleted. We have nightly backup files of the database. Is it possible,
> knowing the database name, the table name, and the primary key value of
> the record, to determine if the record exists in a certain backup file?

You need to restore the backup. But you could restore it under a different
name.


--
Erland Sommarskog, SQL Server MVP, esquel@sommarskog.se

Books Online for SQL Server 2005 at
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/sql/2005/downlo ads/books.mspx
Books Online for SQL Server 2000 at
http://www.microsoft.com/sql/prodinfo/previousversions/books .mspx

Re: Read Backup File Directly?

Right. I was just that, if I wanted to find out *when* it was deleted, I'd
have to restore the backups one at a time, and look at the database after
each restore to see if it were there.

Thanks,

Neil

"Erland Sommarskog" wrote in message
news:Xns9955EDFCA1AF8Yazorman@127.0.0.1...
> Neil (nospam@nospam.net) writes:
>> Is there a way to read a backup file to see if it contains a file
>> without restoring the backup file?
>
> You can use RESTORE FILELISTONLY to list the backups within a backup file.
>
>> We are missing a record from a table, and I need to find out when it was
>> deleted. We have nightly backup files of the database. Is it possible,
>> knowing the database name, the table name, and the primary key value of
>> the record, to determine if the record exists in a certain backup file?
>
> You need to restore the backup. But you could restore it under a different
> name.
>
>
> --
> Erland Sommarskog, SQL Server MVP, esquel@sommarskog.se
>
> Books Online for SQL Server 2005 at
> http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/sql/2005/downlo ads/books.mspx
> Books Online for SQL Server 2000 at
> http://www.microsoft.com/sql/prodinfo/previousversions/books .mspx