Table-level backup

You cannot use the BACKUP DATABASE command to backup a single table, unless of course the table in question is allocated to it's own FILEGROUP.

What you can do, as you have suggested is Export the table data to a CSV file. Now in order to get the definition of your table you can 'Script out' the CREATE TABLE script.

You can do this within SQL Server Management Studio, by:

right clicking Database > Tasks > Generate Script

You can then select the table you wish to script out and also choose to include any associated objects, such as constraints and indexes.

in order to get the DATA along with just the schema, you've got to choose Advanced on the set scripting options tab, and in the GENERAL section set the Types of data to script select Schema and Data

Hope this helps but feel free to contact me directly if you require further assitance.

If you're looking for something like MySQL's DUMP, then good news: SQL Server 2008 Management Studio added that ability.

In SSMS, just right-click on the DB in question and select Tasks > Generate Scripts. Then in the 2nd page of the options wizard, make sure to select that you'd like the data scripted as well, and it will generate what amounts to a DUMP file for you.

Create new filegroup, put this table on it, and backup this filegroup only.

You can use the free Database Publishing Wizard from Microsoft to generate text files with SQL scripts (CREATE TABLE and INSERT INTO).

You can create such a file for a single table, and you can "restore" the complete table including the data by simply running the SQL script.

Every recovery model lets you back up a whole or partial SQL Server database or individual files or filegroups of the database. Table-level backups cannot be created.

From: Backup Overview (SQL Server)

You probably have two options, as SQL Server doesn't support table backups. Both would start with scripting the table creation. Then you can either use the Script Table - INSERT option which will generate a lot of insert statements, or you can use Integration services (DTS with 2000) or similar to export the data as CSV or similar.

BMC Recovery Manager (formerly known as SQLBacktrack) allows point-in-time recovery of individual objects in a database (aka tables). It is not cheap but does a fantastic job: http://www.bmc.com/products/proddocview/0,2832,19052_19429_70025639_147752,00.html

http://www.bmc.com/products/proddocview/0,2832,19052_19429_67883151_147636,00.html