Methods and computer readable media for restoring a database. In a method, a backup of a subset of a database is created, where the subset includes a filegroup and database metadata describing the filegroup. The database is then restored using the database subset. In a computer-readable medium, a first data field contains data representing a database subset having at least one of a plurality of filegroups. A second data field contains data representing database metadata that describes the filegroup. In another method, archived database metadata and an archived filegroup that is one of a plurality of filegroups is accessed, and the filegroup is brought online using the database metadata.