Someone posted a note asking how they might restore if the disk that contained their transaction log crashed. I replied that if they had the data files on a separate drive, they could detach/attach, build a new log file, and move on.

Apparently that’s wrong.

If the database is not shut down cleanly, you can’t do a detach/attach. The database will not attach, and you’ll be restoring from backups. It seems that you have a better chance of recovering all your data with a full backup and a loss of the data discs rather than a loss of the log disks.

A good thing to know. If you are trying to figure out a log backup strategy, make sure you truly are accounting for the amount of data loss you can tolerate. If you lose disks, you’re going to need those backups.