How to Restore a SQL Database From a .MDF File. Computer database software such as Microsoft's SQL Server benefits all types of businesses, as it makes recordkeeping fast, flexible and secure.

Click the name of your SQL server in the Object Explorer pane to expose your databases. Select "user databases," then right-click the name of the database you want to restore (Source 1).

You can create a Full Backup to restore database in SQL Server using the SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS). For this, open SSMS, right-click the database, and select Tasks > Back Up.

Alternatively, you can open the SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS), right-click your database, and select Tasks > Detach. There is another way to set the database offline. The following command will ...

For this example, I’m choosing the AdventureWorksLT sample database as the source (Figure B). The next step is to create a server to host your SQL database.