Unable to start SQL 2000 SP4

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Unable to start SQL 2000 SP4

Douglas Elwood

SSC Eights!

Points: 997
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March 6, 2010 at 3:14 pm

#98551

We have a system that was having disk array issues. We replaced a drive and eventually rebuilt the drive arrays.
I installed SQL 2000 + SP4 and changed the registry entries (for log, master.mdf and mastlog.ldf) to point to the previous database files.
Attempting to start SQL (normally or in single-user mode) results in the log messages below. I can open and copy both the master.mdf and mastlog.ldf files, but the array failures might have damaged it internally. (we receive no specific I/O related error however) After receiving the last error I get my command prompt back.
2010-03-07 04:42:36.95 server Microsoft SQL Server 2000 - 8.00.2039 (Intel X86)
May 3 2005 23:18:38
Copyright (c) 1988-2003 Microsoft Corporation
Standard Edition on Windows NT 5.2 (Build 3790: Service Pack 2)
2010-03-07 04:42:36.98 server Copyright (C) 1988-2002 Microsoft Corporation.
2010-03-07 04:42:36.98 server All rights reserved.
2010-03-07 04:42:36.98 server Server Process ID is 1932.
2010-03-07 04:42:36.99 server Logging SQL Server messages in file 'E:\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL\log\ERRORLOG'.
2010-03-07 04:42:37.01 server initconfig: Number of server processes reduced to 32817.
2010-03-07 04:42:37.01 server SQL Server is starting at priority class 'high'(2 CPUs detected).
2010-03-07 04:42:37.38 server SQL Server configured for thread mode processing.
2010-03-07 04:42:37.43 server Using dynamic lock allocation. [2500] Lock Blocks, [5000] Lock Owner Blocks.
2010-03-07 04:42:37.48 server Attempting to initialize Distributed Transaction Coordinator.
2010-03-07 04:42:38.57 spid4 Warning ******************
2010-03-07 04:42:38.57 spid4 SQL Server started in single user mode. Updates allowed to system catalogs.
2010-03-07 04:42:38.59 spid4 Starting up database 'master'.
2010-03-07 04:42:38.60 spid4 Error: 823, Severity: 24, State: 6.
2010-03-07 04:42:38.62 spid4 Error: 823, Severity: 24, State: 6.
2010-03-07 04:42:38.62 spid4 Error: 5180, Severity: 22, State: 1.
I have been supporting databases (SQL included) for a very long time (>14 years) and have never seen this before.
I will see if I can locate older copies of the mdf/ldf for the master database and see if we have .bak files. In the meantime, my system is broken.

Viewing 5 posts - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)

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Gail Shaw SSC Guru Points: 1004504 More actions · Answer 1

Restore master from a backup. Error 823 is an IO error so there's damage to the database file somewhere. Probably from that array problem.

Once you have SQL running, please run CheckDB on all user and system databases, make sure there's nothing else wrong.

Gail Shaw
Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server, MVP, M.Sc (Comp Sci)
SQL In The Wild: Discussions on DB performance with occasional diversions into recoverability

We walk in the dark places no others will enter
We stand on the bridge and no one may pass

Douglas Elwood SSC Eights! Points: 997 More actions · Answer 2

Gail,

When I attempted to connect this database with a different name, I got the I/O error message. I used my fresh install copy of master and restored over the top.

Thanks!

LCA_GA_1431 Hall of Fame Points: 3779 More actions · Answer 3

Have you tried rebuilding the master database? Can't think of the cmd, it is something like rebuildm.exe???

Douglas Elwood SSC Eights! Points: 997 More actions · Answer 4

Rick,

I was able to recover the master database in another way. No need to rebuild the master database. (I have not used that process since early SQL 6.5 and Sybase 11)

Thanks for the suggestion, our production database is back online. 🙂

Doug