A method and system for live-mounting database backups. Specifically, disclosed method and system entail recovering database data—in entirety or at any granular level—without needing to provision storage resources for point-in-time database copies (i.e., backup database data), or without needing to wait for large amounts of data, representative of the point-in-time database copies, to traverse a network from backup storage to a target device. Substantively, through live-mounting, the physical point-in-time database data, as well as the associated structural metadata, may be retained on backup storage while a pointer-based snapshot, mapping to the physical point-in-time database data and structural metadata, may be generated thereon. Thereafter, a file system—mapping to the pointer-based snapshot on the backup storage—may be mounted on the target device, which exposes an interface through which the backup database data may be accessed and/or manipulated using a distributed file system protocol.