jenn5175 Posted June 5, 2003 Posted June 5, 2003 Does anyone know a tool which will read LDF/MDF files or how to restore an un-backed up db? Here's the issue. I have SQL Server 2000 on different showsites collecting lead information from the event (through web forms). I then put all data collected into a text file and FTP it to the lead collection company in the format they request. I use a stored procedure and scheduled task to accomplish this because I am rarely onsite. For the first time, I got a server back last week that had faileded FTPing. So I manually generated the file and saw it was blank. I looked in the database and it, too, was empty. This is a show which normally has 5,000+ leads and I had zero. So I looked at the MDF/LDF files. The MDF was 16M and the LDF was 26M. I opened them in Notepad and although mostly garbage, there were some definate leads in there (English intermixed with symbols). I was able to parse through the 4000 pages of the LDF and recover 147 complete leads using Notepad. Now here's my question. There was obviously stuff entered and since we expected 5000+ leads, could it be that most of the "garbage" were leads, also? If so, how can I extract the data? I tried all sorts of restoring and rolling back the database but it was never backed up so I can't. But I KNOW there is data in those files. So is there another tool I can use (I tried restoring using Enterprise Manager) to see what all of that garbage says? Or a way to use those files to restore the database to a point in time (not using Restore Database since I have exhausted that option I think). I am desperate here. I have never seen this - and still have no idea how this happened. Please give me any ideas on how to extract this data!!! Jenn Quote
*Experts* Nerseus Posted June 5, 2003 *Experts* Posted June 5, 2003 I've never heard of a tool that would read or parse an MDF or LDF file. I've seen tools that parse SQL Server transaction logs which might help if you have them and if they're turned on. Search google for reading transaction logs and you should find a few tools (though the only ones I've seen are not free). Is the restore just not working, working with errors, or working fine but no data? Keep in mind that you can specify a default size for database files in SQL Server. So even though the file may be 16meg/26meg, it may only contain 50k of data. The rest may or may not be real data - hard to tell... -Nerseus Quote "I want to stand as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all the kinds of things you can't see from the center." - Kurt Vonnegut
jenn5175 Posted June 6, 2003 Author Posted June 6, 2003 Just in case anyone has this problem in the future - go to http://www.lumigent.com and look for their Log Explorer - it did EXACTLY what I needed. Jenn Quote
*Experts* Nerseus Posted June 9, 2003 *Experts* Posted June 9, 2003 Hey, that's the company I was talking about - I just thought they read the transaction logs not the actual database files. Good to know for the future :) -Nerseus Quote "I want to stand as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all the kinds of things you can't see from the center." - Kurt Vonnegut
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