Scott Costello-401147 (5/6/2013)

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I've recently taken over database duties and am trying to learn as I go. Our company uses Redgate 6.5 for backing up one of our larger databases. Here is our backup schedule...

- Full once a month on the first

- Deferential every day

- Log every hour

This all seems to work fine. This past week we had a need to restore the database to a test database. The restore point we needed was April 18th.

- I restore the FULL backup no problem (April 1st)

- I restore the April 1st DIFF backup no problem

- I attempt to restore the April 2nd DIFF backup and get the following error...

SQL error 3136: This differential backup cannot be restored because the database has not been restored to the correct earlier state.

I have found that if I restore all the Log files inbetween the DIFFs I can then restore the DIFF. So...

- Restore FULL

- Restore April 1st DIFF

- Restore All LOG backups between April 1st DIFF and April 2nd DIFF

- Restore April 2nd DIFF

- Restore All LOG backups between April 2nd DIFF and April 3rd DIFF

- Restore April 3rd DIFF

- etc...

This doesn't seem logical to me or from everything I've read. What am I missing or doing wrong?