Attach Database Error Unable to open the physical file Operating system error

by Administrator 2. November 2009 23:56

This one caused a bit of a panic I can tell you! We had major trouble reattaching a very large database file. We kept getting the error below (Running SQL 2008 on Windows 7):

Unable to open the physical file Operating system error 5: "5(failed to retrieve text for this error. Reason: 15105)". (Microsoft SQL Server, Error: 5

This occured both when using the Management Console and if running the stored procedures 'sp_attach_db' and 'sp_attach_single_file_db'

Solution

Not sure if there is a 'better' way of doing this but we found that connecting using 'sa' and attaching the database as normal solved the problem

 

An explicit value for the identity column in table '' can only be specified when a column list is used and IDENTITY_INSERT is ON

by Administrator 23. October 2009 20:06

Easy one this, if you're trying to insert rows with specific values to go into an identity column (e.g. when transferring data from one database to another) you need to use the following kind of statement

SET IDENTITY_INSERT tablename ON

 

INSERT INTO tablename (column1, column2)

SELECT column1, column2 FROM table2

 

SET IDENTITY_INSERT tablename OFF