SQL Server: Find Database File Path

September 22, 2011

SQL Server: Find Database File Path

Thursday, September 22, 2011 Posted by Madhivanan
Labels: SQL Server Administration

Suppose you want to find out the path where the SQL Server database files(mdf and ldf) are located, using a query. You can use system procedure sp_helpdb and system view sysfiles to obtain this information.

The following methods shows the path of the database files for master database

Method 1 : Use sp_helpdb

EXEC sp_helpdb master

Method 2 : Use sys.sysfiles view

select filename from master.sys.sysfiles

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About The Author

Madhivanan,an MSc computer Science graduate from Chennai-India, works as an Assistant Project Manager at Ellaar Infotek Solutions Private Limited. He started his career as a developer working with Visual Basic 6.0, SQL Server 2000 and Crystal Report 8. As years went by, he started working more on writing queries in SQL Server. He now has good level of knowledge in SQLServer, Oracle, MySQL and PostgreSQL as well. He is also one of the leading posters at www.sqlteam.com and a moderator at www.sql-server-performance.com. His T-sql blog is at http://beyondrelational.com/blogs/madhivanan


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2 Responses to "SQL Server: Find Database File Path"

Vishal said...

September 22, 2011 4:33 AM

For SQL Server 2005+ you can also use sys.database_files:

SELECT name, physical_name
FROM sys.database_files
Suprotim Agarwal said...

September 22, 2011 5:03 AM

I am not 100% sure but I think sys.sysfiles was either removed or planned to be removed from SQL 2005+ onwards. So yes sys.database_files is a good option.

For read-only db's in particular, I would recommend trying the master.sys.master_files DMV.