Restoring SQL Server backups made by previous versions

Question

By reading the various versions of BOL article Restore a Database Backup (SQL Server Management Studio), I have determined that all versions of SQL Server from 2005 to 2014 can restore a 2005 backup. This can be deduced by reading the corresponding version of this sentence:

Note that if you restore a SQL Server 2005 or higher database to SQL Server 2014 ...

Is there a reference that lists this information explicitly? That is, given a version of SQL Server, I would like to see at a glance which earlier versions' backups can be restored.

Answer 1

Basically you can restore any backup from an older version of SQL server to a newer version. That means you can restore:

1. 2005 to 2008, 2008R2, 2012 and 2014
2. 2008 backup can be restored to 2008R2, 2012 and 2014
3. 2008R2 to 2012 and 2014
4. 2012 to 2014

If you need the official documentation you can check the link you presented in your question http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms177429(v=sql.120).aspx and just change the version (it's under the title).