> Is there a way to read a backup file to see if it contains a file
> without restoring the backup file?

> We are missing a record from a table, and I need to find out when it was
> deleted. We have nightly backup files of the database. Is it possible,
> knowing the database name, the table name, and the primary key value of
> the record, to determine if the record exists in a certain backup file?

"Erland Sommarskog" <esquel@sommarskog.se> wrote in message
news:Xns9955EDFCA1AF8Yazorman@127.0.0.1...
> Neil (nospam@nospam.net) writes:
>> Is there a way to read a backup file to see if it contains a file
>> without restoring the backup file?
>
> You can use RESTORE FILELISTONLY to list the backups within a backup file.
>
>> We are missing a record from a table, and I need to find out when it was
>> deleted. We have nightly backup files of the database. Is it possible,
>> knowing the database name, the table name, and the primary key value of
>> the record, to determine if the record exists in a certain backup file?
>
> You need to restore the backup. But you could restore it under a different
> name.
>
>
> --
> Erland Sommarskog, SQL Server MVP, esquel@sommarskog.se
>
> Books Online for SQL Server 2005 at
> http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/sql/2005/downloads/books.mspx
> Books Online for SQL Server 2000 at
> http://www.microsoft.com/sql/prodinfo/previousversions/books.mspx