How to Recover MS SQL Database from Suspect Mode

We often come across queries like “How do I recover SQL database from suspect mode?”, “How do I fix a suspect database?”, “How to repair a suspect database in SQL Server 2000?” and many more. Hence, in this blog, we will talk about the causes of suspect mode and solutions to fix database in suspect mode error. Apart from this, we will demonstrate the working of SQL Database Recovery Tool, an automated tool.

SQL Suspect Mode

MS SQL is a relational database management system (RDBMS). It is the most widely used database software and SQL requires a lot of expertise and skill to handle. Many times, when users open their database, they get a notification “Database in SUSPECT mode”. What is Suspect Mode?

The SQL Suspect Mode is one of the states of SQL server databases like Online, Restoring, Recovering, Recovery Pending, Emergency, and Suspect modes. This indicates that the database server is damaged or corrupt. In the Suspect mode, the SQL database is inaccessible and you will be unable to recover or connect the database to read or write during server startup.

To recover SQL database from suspect mode, user need to take some strong steps. But before you recover the SQL database, we need to learn the reasons for SQL SUSPECT mode.

Reason for SQL Database Goes to Suspect Mode Issue

There are many reasons why the SQL server database goes into SUSPECT mode. Some of them are as follows:

1. Unexpected hardware failure.
2. Database files are inaccessible
3. Abrupt shutdown of the system.
4. Database files would have been corrupted.
5. SQL Server crash or restart in the middle of the transaction resulting in an inaccessible transaction log file.
6. Lack of enough memory or disk space.
7. Incomplete rollback or roll forward operation.
8. Improper termination of SQL database server.
9. Database files are accessed or struck by anti-virus software, any third-party software, operating system, etc.
10. Sudden power failure.

Many other possible reasons may lead the database to go into Suspect mode. However, the method to recover database files will be the same. Therefore, let’s see how to recover database from Suspect mode in SQL Server.

Methods to Recover SQL Database from Suspect Mode

You can restore the database in suspect mode from either a manual or professional method.

#1. Manually Restore Database from Suspect Mode

To manually bring database online from suspect mode in SQL Server, follow the procedure explained below:

Step 1: Open MS SQL Server Management Studio(SSMS) and connect to the database.

Step 2: Select ‘New Query’.

Step 3: In the Query Editor Window, enter the below T-SQL query to turn off the Suspect flag on the database and change the database status to EMERGENCY.

  EXEC sp_resetstatus ‘DB_name’;

  ALTER DATABASE db_name SET EMERGENCY

Now you can access the database after changing the db status.

NOTE: If you are unable to set the database in emergency mode, skip to the next solution.

Step 4: Perform the Consistency Check on the Master Database to check whether the database is corrupted or not. Run the following Query:

DBCC CHECKDB (‘DB_name’)

Step 5: Execute the T-SQL query given below to bring the database into SINGLE_USER mode and to roll back the previous transaction.

ALTER DATABASE DB_name SET SINGLE_USER WITH ROLLBACK IMMEDIATE

Switching the database to Single User mode prevents other users from making changes to the database during the repair process.

Note: Take a complete backup of the database files to avoid chances of data loss in the next operation.

Step 6: Perform the database repair, using the following code:

  DBCC CHECKDB (‘DB_name’, REPAIR_ALLOW_DATA_LOSS)

This will help you fix all the errors and repair them. However, it may cause some data loss.

Step 7: Enter the code to switch the database to Multi_User mode:

  ALTER DATABASE DB_name SET MULTI_USER

Step 8: Change the status from EMERGENCY to ONLINE.

ALTER DATABASE DBname SET ONLINE

Refresh the database server and check the connectivity.

If the file is corrupted or damaged heavily and this manual process did not work to restore SQL Server database from Suspect Mode or you find it lengthy to perform, there is an alternative option of repairing the SQL database file using the professional tool. Let us learn about the professional method.

#2. Professionally Restore Database from Suspect Mode

Using DRS SQL Recovery Tool, a professional tool you can repair corrupted/damaged SQL database files and bring database online from suspect mode in SQL Server. This SQL database recovery software is effective in recovering tables, triggers, indexes, rules, procedures, functions, etc. It repairs heavily corrupted/damaged MDF and NDF files for complete SQL server data recovery and restores database objects. It is a highly efficient tool and user-friendly too. Moreover, it is capable of detecting the SQL Server version from the selected MDF and NDF files automatically.

Some of its additional features are:

• It displays a tree-structured preview of recovered database items and allows the user to select the desired database file.
• Automatically detects the SQL server version from the chosen MDF and NDF files.
• Restores recovered SQL database records as CSV and Excel file formats.
• It has a dual-recovery mode, that helps to recover severely corrupted database MDF and NDF files.

Apart from this, the tool also provides you with a free trial version to understand the functions and features of the tool. This demo version is as fully featured as the premium one, but the trial version is limited to only displaying the recovered items. And you can not save the recovered data. However, you can save the snapshot of recovered data. Let us see the working of the DRS SQL Database Recovery Tool.

Step-by-Step Guide of DRS SQL Recovery Tool

This is how the tool performs to recover database from Suspect mode in SQL Server:

1. Download the DRS SQL Recovery tool and install it in your system. Run it as an administrator.
2. Click Open at the top and then click the Browse (…) button to select the corrupted MDF file.
3. From the file explorer window, choose the corrupted MDF file you want to recover. Click OK.
4. Select the Recovery mode from the drop-down menu: Standard Mode for less corrupted files and Advanced Mode for heavily corrupted ones. Choose the other options as per required. And then press OK.
5. After scanning, you will see a tree-structured preview of recovered items. Tick the required items and Save.
6. The saving wizard opens. Firstly, opt for the SQL Server Database and then choose other options as per your preferences.
7. Click OK and save the recovered database items.

Conclusion

This blog discussed how to recover SQL database from suspect mode and demonstrated the most preferred solutions. You can perform the above-mentioned manual or professional method to recover the database. However, the manual process can fail in case of heavily corrupted files and is quite lengthy as well as confusing to perform for a non-technical user. Therefore, the best approach to fix database in suspect mode error is to use the SQL Recovery tool for fast and easy operation.

Related Post: Restore Backup on Existing Data.