How to restore a sql server 2014 .bak file when running sql servers 2012 and 2014 side by side

Question

I have both sql server 2012 and 2014 running on my windows 10 machine side by side. I am trying to restore a .bak file created in sql server 2014 on an another machine. When I try to restore it on my machine, it is complaining "Backup media verification failed" error. Due to some reason it is trying restore a sql server 2014 .bak file into sql server 2012 although I am using sql server 2014 management studio to do the restore.

Thansk

Answer 1

You have to upgrade your sql server from 2012 to 2014, otherwise it will not allow you to do that due to the database version.

1. Backup your 2012 databases just incase
2. Either install new 2014 instance or upgrade your old 2012 instance to 2014.
3. Restore those backup files on the new 2014 instance, probably using With move command