Is it possible to restore a backup of a SQL Server 2008 database onto an instance of SQL Server 2000?
I need to work on an sample application for which database backup is in sql server 2008. But I'll not be able to install 2008. So is it possible to restore that back up in 2000?
It's not possible to restore a database from a newer release of SQL Server to an older release. You should create a new database in your SQL Server 2000 instance and then use import or export tools to get the data from the 2008 db into the 2000 db. Some googling turned this up: http://www.eggheadcafe.com/conversation.aspx?messageid=34399091&threadid=34399086
Short answer NO. Long answer again No!. All you can do its generate scripts from SQL Server 2008 and run them on SQL Server 2000. Complete walkthrought here. http://www.devx.com/dbzone/Article/40531
Unfortunately, as other posters have mentioned, this is not possible.
The workaround, rather than generating stacks of scrips etc. I would suggest that you use the SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) Transfer Database Task.