SQL SERVER – Startup Problem – FIX – Error 5118, Severity 16, State 1

I have been monitoring some of the error messages that SQL Server has been throwing in the recent versions and they are self-explanatory. If we understand the English, then half the problem is solved. It becomes easier and quicker for an administrator if they ever encounter such errors. This blog is an inspiration to one such error which one of my readers found it difficult to understand because he was just hired from college.

My blog reader contacted me via comments and told that he is not able to start SQL Service. Without any delay, I have asked to share the error message. He told that he is stating it from Services.msc and getting an error:

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Services
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Windows could not start the SQL Server (SQL2014) on Local Computer. For more information, review the System Event Log. If this is a non-Microsoft service, contact the service vendor, and refer to service-specific error code 3417.
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OK
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I told that this is not an error which can help much and I asked to share SQL Server ERRORLOG. Since he was not a SQL person, he was not aware of that file. I shared below blog:

SQL SERVER – Where is ERRORLOG? Various Ways to Find its Location

When I looked into the ERRORLOG, found below messages.

2015-06-10 20:54:44.00 spid7s      Starting up database ‘master’.
2015-06-10 20:54:44.00 spid7s      Error: 5118, Severity: 16, State: 1.
2015-06-10 20:54:44.00 spid7s      The file “C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL12.SQL2014\MSSQL\DATA\master.mdf” is compressed but does not reside in a read-only database or filegroup. The file must be decompressed.

I asked the question – Did you make some changes with the file master.mdf? He said NO so I asked to share screenshot.

Blue color of the file indicates that files are compressed and that’s the precise error, we are seeing in the ERRORLOG also. I asked him to un-compress the file using below option.

After that he was able to start SQL Service. I asked him the changes which are done and he told that due to disk space issues, complete C:\ drive was compressed.

Have you ever enabled compression on SQL machines on the folder which has SQL database files? Never do that! Have you ever encountered these errors? Let me know some of the reasons you did so and faced this issue.

Reference: Pinal Dave (https://blog.sqlauthority.com)