Question

I am trying to copy an MSSQL DB on the same MSSQL server as the source DB to use as a test version.

I am using the Copy DB wizard in SQL Server Management Studio and the SQL server version is 2008.

However it fails on the last step with a totally vague error message that doesn’t give any info in the event log either:

Package “CDW_XXXXX-_XXXXX-_1” failed.

Has anyone got any experience of DB copy in MSSQL and can shed some light on where I might look to solve the issue. (It’s not a lot to go on I realise, but any hints may help!)

Thanks,
Ben

Answer 1

I wouldn’t use the wizard.

First find out the files you need to deal with:

SELECT name, type_desc
  FROM [db].sys.database_files
  ORDER BY [type];

In most cases this will yield two rows:

name        type_desc
----------- ---------
db          ROWS
db_log      LOG

You’ll need this information in a minute.

Now, take a backup of the database:

BACKUP DATABASE db TO DISK = 'C:\wherever\db.bak';

Once that is finished, you can restore the database using a new name. But in order to prevent over-writing the files for the original database, you need to use the information above to specify the WITH MOVE parameters.

RESTORE DATABASE db_copy FROM DISK = 'C:wherever\db.bak'
  WITH MOVE 'db' TO 'C:\wherever\db_copy_data.mdf', 
  MOVE 'db_log' TO 'C:\wherever\db_copy_log.ldf';