Are there any prerequisites or limitations (such as time constraints or transaction log availability) that must be met in order to perform the SQL Server data restoration?
What should be done immediately after disaster occurs?
When a data loss occurs, the information on the data loss is usually contained within MDF and LDF files. With this in mind, it is of utmost importance to protect these files as soon as possible after the incident is detected. Since SQL Server overwrites data in the MDF file, and also overwrites the LDF file when database is in the simple recovery model, it is crucial to make copies of these files in order to prevent overwriting of the information in MDF and LDF files that is required for the data recovery.
In order to create copies of MDF and LDF files, the database needs to be taken offline first, so that the copies of MDF and LDF files can be created (and taken back online after copies are made). Another option to protect the information is to take database to read-only state, immediately after the accident.
Please find in the below article suggested steps immediately after disaster occurred:
How to use ApexSQL Recover after data loss?
