So You’ve Got Database Corruption—Now What?

Jeff Mlakar walks us through troubleshooting an instance of database corruption:

Before we dive into fixing database corruption it is important to know what not to do. There are things we can do which will make a bad situation even worse.

1. Don’t Panic – most sysadmins are used to having their cages rattled and can keep cool under duress. Jumping to action without a plan is not wise. Now is not the time to start trying things and performing thoughtless actions.

2. Do NOT Detach the Database – we may never get it back again as it may be in a recovery pending state.

3. No restarting SQL Services – databases may never get started up again just like the above.

4. Don’t Reboot the Machine – same as above 2 points

5. Don’t Start by Trying to Repair the Corruption – root cause analysis is critical to preventative measures

Jeff then walks us through things that he does to discern the root cause and correct the issue (if possible).