Error 3205 Too Many Backup Devices Specified.

Error Message.

When you are trying to restore a backup created on a Microsoft SQL Server 2005 instance to a different Microsoft SQL Server instance using Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio, you get the following error:

An exception occurred while executing a Transact-SQL statement or batch. (Microsoft.SqlServer.ConnectionInfo)
Additional information:
Too many backup devices specified for backup or restore; only 64 are allowed.
RESTORE HEADERONLY is terminating abnormally. (Microsoft SQL Server, Error: 3205)

Cause.

You are trying to restore a Microsoft SQL Server 2005 database into Microsoft SQL Server 2000 instance.

Backups created with Microsoft SQL Server 2005 cannot be restored to an earlier version of SQL Server⁽¹⁾.

Solution.

1. Make sure you are restoring to the intended SQL Server instance.
2. Run the following command "SELECT @@version" on the target instance of the restore operation, and make sure you are not restoring to a SQL Server 2000 instance.

References.

(1) Books Online 2005 (April 2006) - RESTORE (Transact-SQL)