Recover from a corrupted Master DB

To rebuild a SQL 2005 master database: start /wait \setup.exe /qn INSTANCENAME= REINSTALL=SQL_Engine REBUILDDATABASE=1 SAPWD= In SQL 2008 use: setup.exe /QUIET /ACTION=REBUILDDATABASE /INSTANCENAME=instance_name /SQLSYSADMINACCOUNTS= accounts [/SAPWD=password] [/SQLCOLLATION=collation_name] Then start in single user mode: sqlservr.exe -m -s Then restore the latest backup of master and user databases, bringing the instance to the latest point possible. More Info: http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Administration/73207/ http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/39292