dan-572483 (4/4/2013)

Are we talking about SQL2008 or SQL2008 R2? The location of the setup file that rebuilds the system databases is different for R2, and the procedure is not well documented.

I went through this exercise last week - fortunately for me it was a non-prod system I deliberately broke so I could learn exactly how to fix it if the Master DB was actually lost.

For detailed steps see my second message in http://www.sqlservercentral.com/Forums/Topic1437039-1550-1.aspx%5B/quote%5D

It is SQL2008 R2. I read your link and also the article from Gail, very helpful! Lot's of thanks!!!

The production problem I expereiced was that the server OS had to be recovered from file backup and the file back tool ignores .mdf or .ldf files. Therefore, databases system files, resource files and template files were missed together.

For resource and template database files I think I can just copy over from other SQL server that has the same version. For system databases files I am trying to find out all the alternative recovery methods. I do agree the best way is to save file backups of system databases.