Attaching out of date .ndf files?

[jsteph]

Hi all,
I have a developement system, and I refresh the data in this with a copy of prod data a couple time a year.

Yet I have a couple of tables where I just want to refresh those on a more frequent basis. These tables are totally and completely logically isolated from the others; ie, no constraints, FK's, or anything connected to other tables, and they exist in their own separate filegroup and .ndf file.

So basically I want to know if I can do a Detach on the dev db, take the newer copy of *just* the .ndf from prod and drop it into the dev box and then do an Attach. I use simple logging and doing a rebuild log wouldn't be an issue.

Can this be done?
THanks,
--Jim

 

[mrdenny]

No you can't. The closest thing you can do is backup the filegroup then restore the filegroup to the other machine. You'll be better off just backing up the whole database and restoring it to dev.

Denny
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