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Data Recovery SQL databases

Structure Query Language(SQL) provides the core technology of many relational database servers. The implementations vary quite widely though, with different 'dialects' in use by database vendors such as IBM, Microsoft and Oracle. From sales and marketing to purchasing and inventory, many organisations depend upon SQL databases remaining accessible for their business to remain operational.

SQL databases are stored on disk, and like other disk-based data they suffer from the same failure points: virus attacks, inaccessible drives or partitions, data corruption, environmental damage, or accidental deletion. In many cases the root cause of data loss is hardware malfunction, and in these instances database data recovery may be an additional step after hard disk data recovery. In other cases the database itself will have suffered corruption, and it is in these instances that recovery techniques specific to databases becomes relevant.

The inner workings of relational databases are complicated, and data recovery procedures will vary depending on the database, platform and environment. However, one thing they all have in common is that the best form of data protection is to ensure that a backup and restore strategy has been implemented properly and tested in that particular environment. Most databases have built-in capabilities for backing up and restoring data; the exact strategy used will depend on budget, database size, transaction intensity, the restore level required, and many other local factors.

As with other types of data recovery, there are software products available to automate the task, and many specialist companies that have the expertise to recover data in even the most difficult situations. If you are in a situation where valuable database data has been lost, and it is not retrievable from backups, it may be time to invest in specialised commercial software or the services of an expert in data recovery.