Read-Only Filegroups
Microsoft® SQL Server™ 2000 allows filegroups to be marked as read-only. Any existing filegroup, except the primary filegroup, can be marked as read-only. A filegroup marked read-only cannot be modified in any way.
Place tables that must not be modified, such as historical data, on filegroups, and then mark the filegroup as read-only. This prevents accidental updates. The read-only filegroup can then be backed up and restored on another instance of SQL Server without concern for recovery of transaction logs.