We have a 2+ TB DB, maximum size disks we are allowed to use are 1TB. We backed up the DB by file and I assumed we could restore this DB to a new server (to test the backup). The consulting company that we use on occasion told me that when you backup by file, you can only restore to the original DB (not to a new empty DB).

1) Is this true?
2) If we have a DB that exceeds the maximum size of 1 disk, how do we backup the DB (to disk) if we want to be able to restore it to another server (with the same 1TB size limit)?

SQL Server 2008 Standard Edition (so stock compression during a backup is not an option - it is only available in Enterprise Edition).

I am thinking I will have to create some spanning disks in order to perform a full DB backup. I am a little concerned though. When we backed up the 2.3 TB DB by file the last time it took 36 hours (backed up to a network drive within the cloud that is typically about 20MB/s transfer rate).

I guess the by file option must not be that popular if you cannot create a new copy of the DB on another server. It looks like there might be a partial restore option but trying to get examples of this is proving difficult.