Sql-server – Backup & restore to different servers different locations

I don't know of anyway to do a schema backup or restore in SQL Server. Your solution of putting all of the schema data on a filegroup will allow you to restore the database to another server, but will require that you restore the primary filegroup as well. (note, this is possible on SQL Server Enterprise Edition versions 2005 and above). One problem for your situation might be that you could only have one of the partially restored databases running on the same instance of SQL Serve This link covers the piecemeal restore process: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms177425.aspx

Unfortunately not. SQL Server will always attempt to restore to exactly what is recorded in the backup file, unless you explicitly specify otherwise (with MOVE in this case).

The REPLACE option only works if you're replacing files owned by the database you're restoring (which makes sense, You may have said you're fine killing DB_A by restoring over it, but SQL doesn't really know how you feel about killing DB_B as well).

If this is something you'll be doing regularly then, then write a small sql script with everything stated, save it and use that every time you want to do the restore. This is how I do our overnight restores for dev/UAT/Training from prod.