It can often be bugs and errors in fetching data from the server. This can leave system administrators baffled as all work comes to a standstill. Incomplete or incorrect transaction cause confusion among employees working on the different sections of a database.
One such frequent issue is the SQL Server torn page error. It can be quite a hassle for a non-technical user facing such a situation. There are ways to fix it easily without worrying about any data loss. This post covers all there is to know about this topic. Continue reading to find out more.
What is the Torn Page in SQL Server?
It is the inability of the server to fetch a particular data during a transaction. It is caused when an Input/Output header tries to access a page that was written incorrectly to the disk. It reports a message saying ‘I/O error (torn page) detected during read’. The reason for this can be primarily contributed to power failure causing partial writes. Other factors include damaged disk or other hardware to which data is being written to. If a torn page is detected by SQL Server, it will sever all connections as the requested data is inaccessible. During the restore process, detecting a torn page sends the database into SUSPECT mode.
Manual Methods to SQL Server Torn Page Repair
Following are two of the most common methods used for fixing this situation:
Solution#1 TORN_PAGE_DETECTION
This is a feature that can be enabled for checking consistency in writing data. Data pages are created in blocks of 8 bytes in SQL Server 2000 and later versions. This facility creates a header containing the first two bits of every 512 byte sector. When reading the text back, the SQL Server compares the header value with the one on the storage block. If these values are dissimilar, an I/O error torn page detected during read. This method can report if pages are missing but cannot detect if data is written incorrectly.
Solution#2 Using Checksum Operation
It is an operation that creates a sum of all the bytes on the entire page. It saves the result in a header which can be compared for detecting a possible change in data. When SQL Server error torn page is detected, a checksum operation is applied to current page data. Its value is compared with the header and if found dissimilar, the issue is reported to the user.
Comparing the Two Solutions
There is no doubt that checksum procedure is much more efficient to fix torn page SQL Server 2008. The TORN_PAGE_DETECTION feature only detects a missing page. It does not provide an insight on whether some bytes are changed, missing or incorrectly written. The checksum helps determine that and identify a possible corruption in the database.
Alternate Way to Fix Torn Pages In SQL Server
The best manual solutions may not be able to restore data from high-level damage to server files. It could have reached the primary (MDF) and secondary ( NDF) database files. These can be fixed by using alternative, third-party SQL MDF Repair. It has a unique algorithm designed to repair complete database without any data loss. It can remove any kind of problems at page-level to reinstate tables, rules, triggers, functions etc. There is an option to save the recovered data directly to an existing database or as .sql scripts. The tool works on all the available Windows 10 and earlier versions for 32 and 64-bit machines.
Conclusion
The smooth functioning of any organisation depends on being able to fetch and store data easily. It can create quite a panic if this basic feature is corrupted. Employees may not be able to get customer or client information or managers about their recruits. It is certainly a great hassle if SQL Server torn page error is reported in any company. Large transactions may be stopped midway while processing. This can be resolved by applying manual means covered in this post. There are other faster, efficient and reliable products that can be used instead. These are professional software like the one mentioned here. These are designed specifically for removing SQL database corruption of any kind.
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