Thank you for the post, free_mascot, interesting one. (couple of days ago, was searching the google for back/restore articles any newly written... and I came across one where this word "piecemeal" was mentioned, though I did not read it what it was about, but my first impression was some kind of made up name... and weird for me to find an entry in the local_help index... well ...:w00t: )

In the local help, at first it says

"This topic is relevant only for databases in the Enterprise edition of SQL Server that contain multiple files or filegroups; and, under the simple model, only for read-only filegroups."

and then...

"Piecemeal restore works with all recovery models, but is more flexible for the full and bulk-logged models than for the simple model. "

failed to co-relate them. One day I will see these in action, I suppose, as restoring FGs... in a decent and consistent way... should become a default practice.. 🙂