Can an MS SQL 2005 backup be restored onto an instance of MS SQL 2008?

Question

Is it possible to restore a backup of a SQL Server 2005 database onto an instance of SQL Server 2008?

I need to rebuild a server as it's getting rather crufty, so I plan to take this opportunity to upgrade to SQL 2008 and wondered if I'll be able to restore my backups OK.

Answer 1

Upgrading from 2005 to 2008 is OK, moving back might require more work

N.B. You might have a problem with your database the logins (as they will not exist in the new server master db) but that's something which would happen regardless of the server version. Just re-create them and re-associate with your database.