What is the difference between an attach and a restore of a database?

What does it mean to restore a database?

Data restore is the process of copying backup data from secondary storage and restoring it to its original location or a new location. A restore is performed to return data that has been lost, stolen or damaged to its original condition or to move data to a new location.

What is the difference between database restore and recovery?

Restoring involves copying backup files from a secondary storage (backup media) to disk. This can be done to replace damaged files or to copy/move a database to a new location. Recovery is the process of applying redo logs to the database to roll it forward.

What does attach database do?

The data and transaction log files of a database can be detached and then reattached to the same or another instance of SQL Server. Detaching and attaching a database is useful if you want to change the database to a different instance of SQL Server on the same computer or to move the database.

What happens when you restore a whole database?

Restore Database Consistent A consistent restore brings all datafiles in the database to a consistent state (all files are restored as of a single point-in-time), where no recovery is needed to open the database. This can only be accomplished if all the files come from a single backup offline database.