Recover Data from an Unattached Content Database

Being able to recover data from an unattached content database is quite a useful feature. The primary benefit is that you do not need a separate recovery farm when restoring site collections, websites, or lists and libraries. Here is a broad overview of the steps for using this feature:

1. Restore the content database from backup to any network-accessible SQL server.

2. Point SharePoint to this restored database (this is where the term unattached content database applies) and either back up the site collection or export the websites/list/library that need to be recovered.

3. Restore the site collection or import the websites/list/library.

The unique capability is in step 2, where SharePoint is ...

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