"NC3" <ncoleman3@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:2b5a9b35-78cc-4f7b-bad1-47274a608b55@a1g2000hsb.googlegroups.com...
>I have a 52 GB database that take 3 hours to restore using SQL Server
> native restore.

The size of 52 GB, is that the size of the backup file? When you have a 52
GB bacup file, that means, that the backup contains 52 GB of data. The
database consists of 1-many datafiles, and 1-many logfiles. Lets say, that
your database only has 1 datafile, and 1 logfile. If the size of the
datafile is 60 GB (have 8 gigs of available space in the database), and the
logfile is 10 gigs, then the restore actually has to write the 52 gigs of
data to the datafile, and write 10 gigs of zeros to the logfile (see Tom
Coopers posting, referring to "Instant initializing" and Kimberly Tripp's
article).
That gives at least 62 GB writes, and 52 GB reads (it neads to read from the
backup file, and write to the data file).


> Does this seem long to anyone who has experience with
> databses of this size? I know each insatalltion is different so things
> like this can vary.

That would depend. Se below.

> the hardware is our environment for SQL is generally the same dual 2/8
> Ghz with 4 to 8 gb or RAM. We do use SATA drives which I understand
> are slower drives but I'm not the sys admin guru.

I would say, that the disk subsystem really matters. You say you use SATA
drives. But how many? If you only have 2 disks in a RAID 1, then 52 GB
reads, and 60+ GB writes WILL take some time.

So, how many disks do you have, and how are the configured in RAID?

We have a database with 70 GB data, with a logfile of 50 GB. Our restore
takes about 25 minutes, having a disk subsystem with about 20 disks in
total.

/Sjang