I've done a very silly thing and need help

[MattK]

After being put in a position where I had to deal with a SQL problem without very little SQL knowledge I have screwed a clients main database up.

I backed up the transaction log and then deleted the log. The database is shown as suspect and won't let me restore.

Am I F&%ked?

[skhanal]

You have to find the last full backup and restore it, then restore all transaction logs including the one you backed up.

Here are the steps

1. RESTORE DATABASE
2. RESTORE TRANSACTION (s) sequentially with NORECOVERY clause
3. RESTORE the last TRANSACTION with RECOVERY clause.

[MattK]

How do you specify the norecovery clause?

Ok found that.

Where is sysdevice held for me to specify the backup device?

[MattK]

It seems they have never backed up before I did the transaction log back up.

Which would explain why the transaction log was so big.

[skhanal]

If no backup device was created then you can use DISK clause of RESTORE

RESTORE DATABASE db FROM DISK='c:\backup\db.bak'