Recovering from media failure on an unmirrored transaction log

If your database is a primary site in a Replication Server installation, or a consolidated database in a SQL Remote installation, you should use a mirrored transaction log, or hardware equivalent. See Protecting against media failure on the transaction log.

To recover from media failure on an unmirrored transaction log (partial recovery)

  1. Make an extra backup copy of the database file immediately. With the transaction log gone, the only record of the changes between the last backup and the most recent checkpoint is in the database file.

  2. Delete or rename the transaction log file.

  3. Restart the database with the -f option.

    dbeng11 samples-dir\demo.db -f
    Caution

    This command should only be used when the database is not participating in a SQL Remote or Replication Server replication system. If your database is a consolidated database in a SQL Remote replication system, you may have to re-extract the remote databases.

    Without the -f option, the server reports the lack of a transaction log as an error. With the option, the server restores the database to the most recent checkpoint and then rolls back any transactions that were not committed at the time of the checkpoint. A new transaction log is then created.

    For information about samples-dir, see Samples directory.