I’m working with an older SQL Server database where I started getting consistency and corruption errors while accessing some of the tables. Running DBCC CHECKDB also reports errors, and unfortunately I don’t have a recent clean backup containing all of the historical data. I still have the original MDF and NDF files, so I’m trying to find out whether the database contents can be recovered without modifying or damaging the original files further.

I’ve been researching different recovery approaches and came across SysInfo MS SQL Database Recovery while looking for options for corrupted MDF/NDF files. It appears to support recovery of database objects and allows the recovered data to be previewed before saving it. I’m considering trying it on a copy of the database first, but I’d like to hear from people who have actually dealt with similar SQL Server corruption issues.

What recovery methods have worked for you when DBCC CHECKDB reports serious corruption and a normal SQL Server restore is not available?