Moving a Database From a Damaged Laptop to a New Clean Laptop

Moving a Database From a Damaged Laptop to a New Clean Laptop

From time to time, laptops will get damaged in the field or will crash due to a hard drive failure.

There will be times when a crash is unavoidable such as during an audit or just after a count was completed. 


This is why nightly syncs to the cloud for all venues audited that day are necessary.


First you will need to have a "clean" laptop.


A clean laptop is one without Pilot or the database installed, basically a new computer.

The steps below will allow you to move your current database from the damaged laptop onto a clean laptop.

Moving the Database

Video Demonstration -


Step-by-Step

1.  Open up the search box and type "Services"
2. Click on any service in the right and then type "SQL" and look for the service called SQL Server (Pilot)
3. Right-click on the service and select "Stop"
4. Open Windows Explorer and copy this path into the window C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL10_50.PILOT\MSSQL\DATA and press enter
5. You will see two PilotR2 files and find the PilotR2 file named PilotR2.mdf.
6. Right-click on the larger file and then select "Copy"
7. Paste the file onto a flash drive and install it into a clean laptop.
8. Let the guys know when you are finished and they will try and recover the data.

The support team will then attempt to recover the data, which will take several hours.

There is a possibility that the database is corrupted.

Unfortunately, in that case, we will not be able to recover the data, which is why you should ALWAYS SYNC FILES TO THE CLOUD. 


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