Differential Backup Failure

  • Differential backups were working fine on my server (SQL Server 2005) until last week. Now they fail on every database. Even if I run the most basic backup command i get an error like this one:

    Failed:(-1073548784) Executing the query "BACKUP DATABASE [MYDB] TO DISK = N'D:\\SQLBackup\\MYDB\\MYDB_backup_200806271259.bak' WITH DIFFERENTIAL , NOFORMAT, NOINIT, NAME = N'MYDB_backup_20080627125948', SKIP, REWIND, NOUNLOAD, STATS = 10

    " failed with the following error: "Cannot perform a differential backup for database "MYDB", because a current database backup does not exist. Perform a full database backup by reissuing BACKUP DATABASE, omitting the WITH DIFFERENTIAL option.

    BACKUP DATABASE is terminating abnormally.". Possible failure reasons: Problems with the query, "ResultSet" property not set correctly, parameters not set correctly, or connection not established correctly.

    I am sure I have a full backup because after I've taken it I check in the logs that it's worked and check in SQL Server Manager and can see the date of last backup is correct.

  • After seeing this error in another forum thread, I have 2 possibilities. One, the recovery model being used has changed on the database. Two, a BACKUP LOG WITH TRUNCATE_ONLY was run on the database. Either way, you will need to run a new full backup to be able to run a differential or tranasction log backup successfully.

    😎

  • I already have a full successful backup of the database. In the logs I can see is was successful. In SQL Server Management tool I can see the Last Database Backup matches the timestamp on the file I have. I can also view the contents of the file in and can se it recognises it's a full backup.

    The problem is, the system seems unable to recognise it when it goes to do the differential.

  • Did anything change on the server between when the backups worked and now? Did you restore any databases, attach any databases, do anything with msdb?

    Can you take a look in the SQL error log, see if there are any errors in there other than the failing diff backups?

    Gail Shaw
    Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server, MVP, M.Sc (Comp Sci)
    SQL In The Wild: Discussions on DB performance with occasional diversions into recoverability

    We walk in the dark places no others will enter
    We stand on the bridge and no one may pass
  • It all coincides with installing windows updates. My symptoms match those on this forum thread:

    http://www.mydatabasesupport.com/forums/ms-sqlserver/145569-ntbackup-breaking-sql-server-2005-differential-backup-chain-again.html

    The solution they give it to turn off the SQL Write Service. I've tried that but my differentials still fail.

  • Do you perhaps know what patches were installed?

    Is there any possibility of uninstalling the updates one at a time until you find the offending one?

    Gail Shaw
    Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server, MVP, M.Sc (Comp Sci)
    SQL In The Wild: Discussions on DB performance with occasional diversions into recoverability

    We walk in the dark places no others will enter
    We stand on the bridge and no one may pass
  • Hi,

    Just take a Full backup and then differential backup and see whether u r able to take or not manually.So that we can make out wat exaclty is the error.

    May be Operating system is not able to recognize .BAK file i think.

  • Thanks for your help but that's what I am doing. I execute this command:

    BACKUP DATABASE [MOM-43]

    TO DISK = N'C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Desktop\43.bak'

    And get this result:

    Processed 6688 pages for database 'MOM-43', file 'MOM-43' on file 6.

    Processed 2 pages for database 'MOM-43', file 'MOM-43_log' on file 6.

    BACKUP DATABASE successfully processed 6690 pages in 9.647 seconds (5.680 MB/sec).

    After that completes I then immediately execute this command:

    BACKUP DATABASE [MOM-43]

    TO DISK = N'C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Desktop\43.bak'

    WITH DIFFERENTIAL

    And get this result:

    Msg 3035, Level 16, State 1, Line 1

    Cannot perform a differential backup for database "MOM-43", because a current database backup does not exist. Perform a full database backup by reissuing BACKUP DATABASE, omitting the WITH DIFFERENTIAL option.

    Msg 3013, Level 16, State 1, Line 1

    BACKUP DATABASE is terminating abnormally.

    As you can see it just isn't recognising that I've done the full backup previously.

  • I think this may be worth opening a case with Microsoft's customer support services. It sounds like you've run into some form of bug.

    Gail Shaw
    Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server, MVP, M.Sc (Comp Sci)
    SQL In The Wild: Discussions on DB performance with occasional diversions into recoverability

    We walk in the dark places no others will enter
    We stand on the bridge and no one may pass
  • Any idea how I contact them?

  • I normally call them direct, but then I work for a MS premier customer.

    Google gave me the following kb article that should get you started. It will cost you something to log the case, but I believe the fee is refunded if the problem was due to a bug.

    http://support.microsoft.com/kb/295539

    Gail Shaw
    Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server, MVP, M.Sc (Comp Sci)
    SQL In The Wild: Discussions on DB performance with occasional diversions into recoverability

    We walk in the dark places no others will enter
    We stand on the bridge and no one may pass
  • The Ntbackup.exe operation may break the differential backup chain of a SQL Server database and may invalidate the differential backups when you perform a snapshot backup of the database

    check the link

    http://support.microsoft.com/kb/903643

  • Hey Guys,

    Any update on this, I am having the same issue, except,

    in my case it is failing sort of randomly in my scheduled backups. For example, I can do a full backup, then I can manually do a few dif backups, then sometime during the week, my differentials will start failing with this same error message.

  • I am also facing the same issue.

    I have SQL Server 2005 RTM and 10 databases are there. My Full Backup and Diff backup is working fine but in a database the Differential backup do not recognize existence of full backup.

    Further I had check restoration history in MSDB and I found that that the recent full backup history is exist in MSDB.

    But I don't know why SQL Server is not recognizing existence of Full backup in a database others databases did not having any issue.

    My all database running under simple Recovery Model.

    Ram
    MSSQL DBA

  • Please post new questions in a new thread. Thanks.

    Gail Shaw
    Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server, MVP, M.Sc (Comp Sci)
    SQL In The Wild: Discussions on DB performance with occasional diversions into recoverability

    We walk in the dark places no others will enter
    We stand on the bridge and no one may pass

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