One of the most precious assets of any organization nowadays is Data. This is the main reason that Data Corruption can result to be very harmful to any person or organization as a whole. Corrupt data results in a loss in revenue, customer’s trust and can lead to the shutdown of a whole organization.
One of the most efficient and reliable ways of storing relational data is by using SQL Server. It stores data securely in the form of MDF Files. But sometimes due to a corruption problem the SQL users want to know how to recover corrupt MDF file in SQL Server. Before moving to the solution part. So, let’s get an overview of SQL Server.
What is SQL Server?
SQL Server is a Relational Database Management System. It stores, manage and retrieve data as and when required by the user. The database creates three types of files –
- MDF File: It is a primary file that points towards the data stored in records. It also plays a crucial role in information storage. There is only one MDF file for a particular database created in the SQL Server.
- LDF File: it is a log file that points to all the log information of the database. This log information is useful in fixing errors, recovering important data.
- NDF File: It is a secondary file that carries additional information or provides data space after MDF File fills up. This file is created as per the user needs.
Through this description, we can see that MDF is the most important file for the SQL Database.
But sometimes there can be situations which lead to damage in SQL Database and due to this, the SQL users want to recover corrupt MDF file SQL server. All of them are discussed below.
Data Corruption
Data Corruption is an error which happens if there are changes in the data, during its processing, which might not be made by the user. There can be several reasons which can lead to corruption of MDF File data in SQL Server. Some of them are discussed below:
- Hardware Failure – This can be caused by faults in CPU, Controllers, Memory stacks, etc. due to which system can fail inevitably.
- Software Issues – These are caused due to bugs in third-party drivers or the Operating System.
- System errors – Improper shutdown of the system or when the system is running.
- Virus attacks– Even if you keep in check of every internal issue, then also there is an entire society of hackers targeting vulnerable data to steal.
- Technical faults– Faults in external drives or storage devices.
From the above discussion, it is evident that these scenarios can lead to Damaged SQL Database Server. The MDF File being the primary file is one of the most important files. Now let’s see how to repair corrupt MDF files of SQL Server.
Know How To Recover Corrupt MDF File SQL server
One of the obvious ways of restoring MDF File of SQL Server is by maintaining a backup file of the database information. But corruption does not happen announced. Maintaining a backup is not the perfect solution for recovery of MDF File.
Even if backups are maintained, there is a possible chance that the backup file also gets corrupt, because of the earlier mentioned situations. The user can also try to use DBCC CHECKDB commands to repair SQL database. But this is not the reliable solution to recover corrupt MDF File SQL Server.
Efficient Method To Recover Corrupt MDF File SQL Server 2008 / 2012 / 2014 / 2016 / 2017
To recover all the data from corrupted SQL Server Database efficiently we can use Trusted SQL Database Recovery Software. This tool retrieves MDF and NDF data files from the database without losing a single bit of data. Moreover, this tools works with all the versions below SQL Server 2017 to Recover corrupt MDF files. The workaround for the tool is easy-to-use. Here’s a guide on how to recover MDF files with the tool.
Please Follow the Mention Steps to Recover Corrupt MDF File SQL Server
Step 1: Install and run the software on the system. On the main screen, choose the ‘Open’ option and browse and select the MDF File you want to repair
Step 2: Now on the next screen select the type of scan as per the corrupted file requirement.
Step 3: After saving the file, it will provide you the option to preview the database file
Step 4: After recovery, you can export the database file with the option to choose schema with or without data. There are two options of exporting the file-
- Exporting as SQL Server Database – This can save the Database in an existing or newly created database.
- Exporting as SQL Server Compatible Database – This will create a new SQL file for the exporting process.
Step 5: After the Export process is completed you can browse and verify the file components after opening from the location.
Summing it up
This write-up is about to recover corrupt MDF file SQL server 2005 / 2008 /2012 / 2014 / 2016 / 2017 In the beginning, we discussed the SQL Server and three types of files created by the database for managing data entities. One of the files is of MDF Format. After this, we discussed the causes of corruption in MDF File and how to retrieve data from MDF files easily. For this, the user can take the help of trusted SQL database recovery software to resolve this issue.
