Salman Ahmed

SQL Server database is marked Suspect

2006-06-04T04:02:00Z

So I try and browse over to http://www.csharpfriends.com and I notice that my custom error page is rendering. I quickly terminal server into my box and open up the web.config and change the error page setting to false so I can see what's going. It turns out my sql login is having problems, so I open up EM and I notice my database is greyed out with the label (Suspect) beside it!

I quickly google to find out what's going on and it turns out there are a number of reasons why sql server flags a database as suspect. Some of them are:

the database could be curropt
the operating system is somehow locking up the database (backup software, virus scanning?)
database restoration fails for some reason
log file is missing

Anyhow, I created a backup of my database a few days ago so I quickly rolled back to that version. I tried looking in my sqlserver log file but nothing really stood out to me, and I must admit I was a little stressed so I took the short cut! *smile*

For those of you who are interested, here are some links that I found on the subject of database's being marked suspect:

I always ran a quick checkdsk on my servers hard drive to ensure my drive was in good shape.

Blog Software in VB.NET

2006-04-05T23:48:00Z

I've been doing C# development for a long time, maybe too long! So I decided to get into the VB.NET camp so I could officially become a 'switch hitter' (that means develop in either C# or VB.NET).

So to force myself to learn, I decided on developing a VB.NET based blog application. You can check it out here: http://www.freeVB.NET

I haven't decided on how I'm going to release this puppy to the world, stay tuned for more on that later.

I've been developing for a couple weeks now and I must say things have gone rather smoothly. One of the trickiest things at first was creating variables, I am so so used to putting the variable type before the variable name. Another issue I had switching over was casting objects to various types hehe.

Stay tuned...

Forget Google, own your own Directory

2004-10-26T05:40:00Z

Ok that's a bit of a stretch, but you can run your own little links directory at a slighly smaller scale using this cool little applciation I have been hacking away at over the past few months.

I have still a bit too go in terms of it being a version 1.0, but here's a sneak peak at my directory links management software (that's a mouthfull isn't it, no idea what I should call it, feel free to suggest).

Some of the cool features include: multi-site support on a single installation, unlimited categories, friendly-Urls, unlimited links, content associated to categories (used as knowledge base articles), multi-language support, icons for categories, last updated icons on categories, user-submission and registration, listing counts on categories, images on listings, associate a listing to multiple categories, user ratings, user comments, templating to allow for easy web design modifications.

I also have role based security so you can hide categories and listings based on user-permissions but its still in the works.

I'll hopefully be starting some sort of a beta testing period once I finish the installation wizard, hope to get some feedback from you guys!

Learning a new Language (no its not C#)

2004-10-22T22:28:00Z

Hey!

I've been out of work for over 1 year now! But before you feel sorry for me, let me just say it was by choice. I dediced to take 1 year off to learn a language (Arabic). I have been in Egypt for almost 6 months now slowly progressing, my reading is much better than my speaking at this point (is that always the case with new languages?).

Anyhow, in my spare time I started developing a Directory Application. Its coming along quite well, I just have the dreaded Installation Wizard to get past.

One of the problems when creating an application is where to draw the line in terms of features. One strategy is to set a deadline and do whatever you can in that timeframe, what doesn't get done then gets put back to another release. I actually didn't set a solid deadline, but let's just say I think I should stop coding new features.

I have a beta version live on the net, but its certainly not the latest build which I hope to setup tommorrow.

Getting back to deadlines and software features, what sort of strategies did you or your team employ?

Greetings; C# Related Links

2004-01-22T04:21:00Z

Greetings,

Thanks to ScottW for setting me up with a blog.

For starters, my name is Salman and I'm the owner/webmaster of C# Friends. My blog will center around ASP.NET, but with a bias to C#.

Here are some C# related links:

C# Coding Style Guide
C# Code Highligher
Online C# Class Generator (be sure to checkout CodeSmith)
C# Syntax Reference
C# Coding Samples (for beginners)

Enjoy!