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Asked: 2026-05-15T11:00:47+00:00

I am getting following error. Restore failed for Server I have recently upgraded SQL

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I am getting following error.

Restore failed for Server

I have recently upgraded SQL Server 2005 Express to SQL Server 2008 Express.

  • I have taken a Backup on Production Server, having SQL Server 2008
  • Backup was good and I tried restoring Backup on Production Server, that works great.
  • Than I downloaded that backup file in .Zip format with FileZila Software (And that is good too).
  • But when I tried to restore that file I am getting following error.

Restore failed for Server

An exception occurred while executing a Transact-SQL statement or batch. (Microsoft.SqlServer.ConnectionInfo)

—————————— ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

The media family on device ‘C:\go4sharepoint_1384_8481.bak’ is incorrectly formed. SQL Server cannot process this media family. RESTORE HEADERONLY is terminating abnormally. (Microsoft SQL Server, Error: 3241)

For help, click: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink?ProdName=Microsoft+SQL+Server&ProdVer=09.00.4053&EvtSrc=MSSQLServer&EvtID=3241&LinkId=20476

Things I tried which didn’t worked

Attempt 1
Try to take backup using following command

BACKUP DATABASE go4sharepoint_1384_8481
TO DISK=’C:\HostingSpaces\dbname_jun14_2010_new.bak’ with FORMAT

And tried restore that file.

Attempt 2
Somebody wrote to test Version of my SQL Server.
When I tried to run following command in SQL Server 2008

Select @@Version

It is giving following output
Microsoft SQL Server 2005 – 9.00.4053.00 (Intel X86) May 26 2009 14:24:20 Copyright (c) 1988-2005 Microsoft Corporation Express Edition on Windows NT 6.0 (Build 6002: Service Pack 2)

My Production Database is in SQL Server 2008, and I am trying to restore DB in SQL Server 2008 but above version is showing as if i am using SQL Server 2005.

Any idea how can I restore SQL Server 2008 DB.

Many Thanks.

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    You cannot restore a backup from a higher SQL Server version on a lower version – this has never been able in SQL Server.

    If you have a SQL Server 2008 backup, you can only restore that on a SQL Server 2008 (or later) machine – but not on a 2005 box. No trick, no workaround, no way to do it.

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