customer database crash..no backup

Potential/likely serious data loss due to failure to insure successful back
ups. Last known backup Oct5th 03.1st reported document loss 02/17/04.SQL Ind
exes and tables with pointers to image database appear to be corrupt. Advise
any steps to recover.Thank
s a millionOpen a case with PSS.
Update resume.
Geoff N. Hiten
Microsoft SQL Server MVP
Senior Database Administrator
Careerbuilder.com
I support the Professional Association for SQL Server
www.sqlpass.org
"terry" <anonymous@.discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:B9EA648A-0C7A-4F29-9168-A60E180EBD00@.microsoft.com...
> Potential/likely serious data loss due to failure to insure successful
backups. Last known backup Oct5th 03.1st reported document loss 02/17/04.SQL
Indexes and tables with pointers to image database appear to be corrupt.
Advise any steps to recover.Thanks a million|||Here are the general recommendations for handling a suspect or corrupt
database:
0. Ensure you have a backup strategy that you can use to recover from
hardware failures (including corruption). I recommend performing both
database and log backup in most situations.
1. If you can run DBCC CHECKDB against the database: Search Books Online and
KB for the error numbers that CHECKDB gives you. There might be specific
info for that type of error.
2. Find out why this happened. Check eventlog, do HW diagnostics etc.;
search Books Online and KB for those errors. You don't want this to happen
again! If the database is suspect, the file might have been in use by for
instance an anti-virus program and restarting SQL Server might be all that
is needed - but you still want to read logs etc to find out what happened.
3. If there is a hardware problem, ensure the faulty hardware is replaced.
4. Backup the log. This assumes that log backup schedule is in place, of
course. If the database is suspect, then the NO_TRUNCATE option for the
RESTORE command must be used. Also, you might want to do a file backup of
the mdf and ldf files, for extra safety.
5. Restore is the best thing to do now. If you managed to backup log as per
step 4, then you will most probably have zero dataloss. You should restore
the latest clean database backup and the subsequent log backups including
the one taken in above step.
If the database isn't suspect, then DBCC with a REPAIR option might be a
secondary option but this will often result in loss of data. Additional
solutions, depending on the errors, may be to manually rebuild non-clustered
indexes, manually drop and reload a table if the data is static, and so on.
If the database is suspect, a secondary option can be to try to "un-suspect"
the database using sp_resetstatus. Read about it (books online, KB, google
etc). It might help but if the database is too damaged, it might just pop
back to suspect again. There's also something called "emergency mode" which
is a "panic" status you can set in order to try to get data out of a damaged
database. I think the name of that option speaks for itself. Again search
the net for info.
If you feel uncertain with above steps, I recommend letting MS hand-hold you
through the steps appropriate for your particular situation.
Tibor Karaszi, SQL Server MVP
Archive at:
http://groups.google.com/groups?oi=...ublic.sqlserver
"terry" <anonymous@.discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:B9EA648A-0C7A-4F29-9168-A60E180EBD00@.microsoft.com...
> Potential/likely serious data loss due to failure to insure successful
backups. Last known backup Oct5th 03.1st reported document loss 02/17/04.SQL
Indexes and tables with pointers to image database appear to be corrupt.
Advise any steps to recover.Thanks a million