Unlike RECOVERING (where recovery is actively running) or SUSPECT (where recovery has definitively failed), RECOVERY PENDING means recovery cannot even begin .
-- Bring back online normally ALTER DATABASE YourDatabaseName SET ONLINE; REPAIR_ALLOW_DATA_LOSS may truncate pages, drop indexes, or remove entire rows. Always export critical data before this step using SELECT INTO or BCP . Case C: Disk Space Issue -- Find log file size and growth settings SELECT name, size/128.0 AS SizeMB, growth, is_percent_growth FROM sys.database_files WHERE type_desc = 'LOG'; -- Shrink log if possible (after freeing disk space) DBCC SHRINKFILE (YourDatabaseName_log, 1024); -- Target 1 GB recovery pending sql
-- 3. Bring database online – SQL will create a new empty log ALTER DATABASE YourDatabaseName SET ONLINE; Unlike RECOVERING (where recovery is actively running) or