move-database-files.md

title	description	author	ms.author	ms.reviewer	ms.date	ms.service	ms.topic	helpviewer_keywords
Move database files	Learn how to move system and user databases by specifying the new file location in the FILENAME clause of the ALTER DATABASE statement.	WilliamDAssafMSFT	wiassaf	randolphwest	09/19/2024	sql	conceptual	disaster recovery [SQL Server], moving database files files [SQL Server], moving data files [SQL Server], moving file moving [SQL Server] moving full-text catalogs moving databases full-text catalogs [SQL Server], moving moving database files scheduled disk maintenance [SQL Server] moving files relocating database files planned database relocations [SQL Server] databases [SQL Server], moving

Move database files

[!INCLUDE SQL Server]

In [!INCLUDE ssNoVersion], you can move system and user databases by specifying the new file location in the FILENAME clause of the ALTER DATABASE statement. Data, log, and full-text catalog files can be moved in this way. This option might be useful in the following situations:

• Failure recovery. For example, the database is in suspect mode, or is shut down, because of a hardware failure.

• Planned relocation.

• Relocation for scheduled disk maintenance.

In this section

Article	Description
Move user databases	Describes the procedures for moving user database files and full-text catalog files to a new location.
Move system databases	Describes the procedures for moving system database files to a new location.

Related content

• ALTER DATABASE (Transact-SQL)
• CREATE DATABASE
• Database detach and attach (SQL Server)