How can I get a SQL Server 2005 compatible backup from SQL Server 2008 database?

Question

I have a sql server 2008 db, I want to restore its backup to a 2005 version. Is there any way for this work?

Note: I can't make a script from my db and run it.

Answer 1

No. It is not possible to restore a database from a backup of a newer version.

The only solution I have come accross is generating a script, but it seems that you do not want to use this

Answer 2

Unfortunately, SQL Server has never supported this - and still doesn't :-(

There is no way you can create a backup in a newer version and restore it in a previous version - and this goes from SQL Server 4.2 all the way through 2008 R2.

All you can do is either create scripts and run them on the target server, or use tools like SQL Compare and SQL Data Compare to compare the two databases and update the target database from the source (basically, what these tools do is create and execute the necessary scripts in the background, so you won't have to fiddle and create those scripts yourself)