Today I was preparing the DB for an implementation of one our module app, I brought along a soon to be production DB . The DB itself was not that big (5GB), however restoring it was taking alot of time. Normally I wouldn't worry about it, but I was on time constraints and the Establishment is working morning only, and I still haven't setup the application.
The restore itself finished more than half an hour, and since we always have two environment a production and a demo environment, I dread waiting for it again as I was about to restore the demo environment. Then I thought of something, made a copy of the DB and log file and renamed it appropriately. Then I simply attached the database with a different name. Voila! instant "restore." Saved me alot of time waiting(20+ mins), the only time I waited when the DB/Log files were recopied which took about 10+mins. Got the application and reports setup long before the bells whistled.
And don't forget to take your production DB offline first or else you won't be able to copy as Sql Server locks the file.