Decision Flow for Server Recovery and Database Repair

You may experience trouble starting a server or database, if the database starts but you are unable to connect to it, or if problems are found during database verification.

1. Does the server start?

   If the server starts, go to step 2.

   If the server does not start, refer to the section Server operational issues. If you cannot start the server after following the suggestions in this section, then refer to the section Starting a Server in Forced Recovery Mode and start the server in forced recovery mode.

   If the server does not start in forced recovery mode, call Technical Support. A restore of the database from backup may be necessary.

2. Can you connect to the database?

   If you cannot connect to the database, refer to the section Database connection issues for troubleshooting suggestions.

   If you can connect to the database and you previously started the server with forced recovery, refer to the section Analysis of Allocation Problems for information on verifying database allocation and recovering leaked blocks.

   If you can connect to the database, but suspect the database may be inconsistent, refer to the section Database Verification for information on checking the consistency of your database.

3. The server is running and you can connect, but you want to verify the consistency of your database.

   If you previously started the server with forced recovery or you suspect database inconsistency, you should run DBCC checks to validate the database. Refer to the section Database Verification for information on checking both index consistency and database allocation.

4. The server is running, you can connect, you have run DBCC checks, and you need to repair the index inconsistencies or allocation problems detected by DBCC.

   If sp_iqcheckdb reports errors in the Index Summary and Index Statistics sections of the results, refer to the section Index Error Repair for the procedure to repair index problems using DBCC.

   If sp_iqcheckdb reports errors in the Allocation Summary and Allocation Statistics sections of the results, refer to the section Repairing Allocation Problems using DBCC for the procedure to repair allocation problems using DBCC.