title: The SQL Server Instance That Will not Start
body: <p>I needed to attach SQL Server 2008 database to server. There was no log file, just mdf file</p>
  
  <p>After some digging I found this <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/773059/how-to-recover-database-from-mdf-in-sql-server-2005">How to recover database from MDF in SQL Server 2005?</a> SO post.<br />
  So I tried following steps:</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>Create a new database with the same name and same MDF and LDF files</li>
  <li>Stop sql server  </li>
  <li>Replace the MDF file with the original</li>
  </ul>
  
  <p>When I next tried to Start SQL Server it failed.</p>
  
  <p>Now it became worse, cannot even start the service. How do I get service back Any idea ? </p>
  
  <p><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/cuWrN.jpg" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/cuWrN.jpg" alt="Error Message when I tried to start the service"></a></p>