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The following commands

restore filelistonly from disk = 'C:\....bak' restore verifyonly from disk = 'C:\....bak'

produce this error 

The media family on device 'C:\...bak' is incorrectly formed. SQL Server cannot process this media family.

This command

restore headeronly from disk = 'C:\....bak'

produces 

BackupName BackupDescription BackupType ExpirationDate Compressed Position DeviceType UserName ServerName DatabaseName DatabaseVersion DatabaseCreationDate BackupSize FirstLSN LastLSN CheckpointLSN DatabaseBackupLSN BackupStartDate BackupFinishDate SortOrder CodePage UnicodeLocaleId UnicodeComparisonStyle CompatibilityLevel SoftwareVendorId SoftwareVersionMajor SoftwareVersionMinor SoftwareVersionBuild MachineName Flags BindingID RecoveryForkID Collation FamilyGUID HasBulkLoggedData IsSnapshot IsReadOnly IsSingleUser HasBackupChecksums IsDamaged BeginsLogChain HasIncompleteMetaData IsForceOffline IsCopyOnly FirstRecoveryForkID ForkPointLSN RecoveryModel DifferentialBaseLSN DifferentialBaseGUID BackupTypeDescription BackupSetGUID CompressedBackupSize *** INCOMPLETE *** NULL NULL NULL NULL 1 NULL NULL NULL NULL NULL NULL NULL NULL NULL NULL NULL NULL NULL NULL NULL NULL NULL NULL NULL NULL NULL NULL NULL NULL NULL NULL NULL NULL NULL NULL NULL NULL NULL NULL NULL NULL NULL NULL NULL NULL NULL NULL NULL NULL NULL NULL

I verified the .bak file did indeed come from a Microsoft SQL Server. It is not encrypted. It is doubtful that it was created from Microsoft SQL Server 2012 because the old system was several years old. The import was attempted using a temporary install onto a Vista machine with SQL Server 2008 R2.

The goal is to get the data into either a different database (for example, using ODBC), or into a plain data type (.csv, .sql, .xml, etc) that we can create an import program for.

Do you suggest a different method other than TSQL for performing this import?

Do you have an alternate explanation for the error message? I am not inclined to guess whether I should try again on a newer or older SQL Server Version because every re-install takes a significant amount time, which is a limited resource.

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3 Answers 3

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If this is not a version mismatch, then the backup file could be actually corrupted.

If this is the case, you're not going to be able to (at least easily) recover anything from it.

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  • If I use the most recent SQL Server version, would it cover all previous versions? Commented Jul 25, 2012 at 21:34
  • Yes. See msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms186858.aspx. Commented Jul 25, 2012 at 21:55
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    Turned out to be a 2012 on the original system. Commented Jul 26, 2012 at 12:42
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Are you sure that the backup consisted of one file?

If you have the free space on the source server that the backup came from (assuming it is still operational) you could try restoring the backup to a new database to confirm that the backup is good

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  • I am not directly able to access the server it came from. Commented Jul 25, 2012 at 21:41
  • Does this also mean that you might not have been given the full set of .BAK files that make up the backup set? Commented Jul 25, 2012 at 21:44
  • It is possible, but I expect that if there is more than one bak file, they would have sent them all. I will attempt to determine, just wanted to get input here, in case I am missing something. So far it just appears to be either a version mismatch, or actually a corrupt file, or lack of files. I don't yet know if I should try using an older or newer version and attempt the import again. Commented Jul 25, 2012 at 21:49
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Either the file's header is corrupt or this is one of the files from a backup set where the backup to spread over multiple files.

You'll need to get a new backup of the database, or you'll need to get the other files from the backup set.

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