Easy Ways to Fix Recovery Pending State in SQL Server 2014/2016/2017

One of the technical issues when using SQL database is Recovering pending state in SQL server. When the problem occurs, you can fix it with the possible solutions here. If you're not a pro at solving SQL database issues, don't worry, you can use EaseUS MS SQL Recovery to help you make it effortlessly.

In everyday use, the SQL server database may face many technical issues and are tough to settle. One of the problems is "Recovering pending state in SQL server database". If you encounter this issue unexpectedly, don't worry. Resort to the fixes here to solve recovery pending state in SQL server database. Besides, if you are not a professional in SQL server database issues and do not have the confidence to settle this problem, you can use EaseUS MS SQL Recovery to help you do it in a simple and effective way.

Three States of SQL Server Databases

If a single or multiple core MDF/NDF files corrupted, an SQL database is likely to be damaged. Different levels of damage will show up in different states. Let's look into the details.

• Online: If one of the data files has been damaged, the database will remain accessible and online.
• Suspect: The transaction log file is damaged and it inhibits recovery or prevents transaction rollback from completion, which will result in failure of SQL database.
• Recovery Pending: The SQL Server needs to run database recovery, but is prevented from starting due to some causes. This is unlike a Suspect state that shows recovery may fail, but it has not started yet. 

Reasons for Recovery Pending State in SQL Server

Several factors can lead to recovery pending state in SQL Server database. The main reasons are listed as follows.

• The database is not cleanly shut down. In other words, one or more unaccomplished transaction is active at that time and its log file has been deleted.
• The transaction log files are corrupted during the process of transfer to solve performance issues.
• Insufficient free storage space on the database partition, which causes SQL can't open the database and can’t lock the database files.

How to Fix Recovery Pending State in SQL Server Database

You can fix the recovery pending state issue in the SQL Server database manually with some queries. Or to avoid worse problems due to misoperations, you can use a professional MS SQL recovery tool to take you through.

Method 1. Mark SQL Database in Emergency Mode

The emergency mode will mark the SQL database as READ_ONLY, disable logging. At this time, DBA is only allowed to access. Entering emergency mode and start database recovery can solve any technical issue. And the database will automatically come out of the EMERGENCY mode.

ALTER DATABASE [DBName] SET EMERGENCY;

GO

ALTER DATABASE [DBName] set single_user

GO

DBCC CHECKDB ([DBName], REPAIR_ALLOW_DATA_LOSS) WITH ALL_ERRORMSGS;

GO

ALTER DATABASE [DBName] set multi_user

GO

Method 2. Mark SQL Database in Emergency Mode, Disconnect the Main Database

These queries will cause the server to get rid of the corrupt log and build a new one automatically. 

ALTER DATABASE [DBName] SET EMERGENCY;

ALTER DATABASE [DBName] set multi_user

EXEC sp_detach_db ‘[DBName]’

EXEC sp_attach_single_file_db @DBName = ‘[DBName]’, @physname = N'[mdf path]’

An Easier and Risk-Free Way to Fix Recovery Pending State in SQL Server

The above manual solutions can fix recovery pending state issues effectively. If you are a pro at SQL Server database issues, they are your first choices. However, if you don't know much about SQL Server databases, we highly recommend you try a safer and automated workaround. Use MS SQL recovery software to repair the corrupted database in 823/824/825 errors.

Step 1. Download and run EaseUS MS SQL Recovery.

Step 2. Click the two dots (Browse button) to choose the target MDF file or click "Search" and select the desired file to repair from the list found below. Then, click "Repair" to start the repairing process. 

Step 3. When the process completes, a Window will appear to confirm the successful analysis. All the deleted tables & records recovered items will be listed on the left pane in the name of the original tables.

Step 4. Click the "Export" button in the bottom right corner of the screen. You can save the recovered database to database & SQL scripts based on your need. Then, you need to enter Server/Instance Name and connect to the server. If you choose to "Export to database", you can create a new database or export to an existing database.