Autorecover Sql Scripts

This morning, when I came into work, I discovered that Windows Update had graciously restarted my machine for me. No big deal. But wait, then I realized I had some SQL work that I hadn’t saved yet. NOOOOOO!!! I know, I know, …​ always save your work. But yesterday, I didn’t. So you can imagine how irritated I was to discover that all of that hard work was gone. Or so I thought.

A co-worker heard me getting mad at myself and chimed in that SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) has an autorecover feature. WHAT!? Yep, when ever you start typing a query in SSMS, a file is automatically created and saves itself every 5 minutes. The location of this AutoRecover document is located in "\My Documents\SQL Server Management Studio\Backup Files\Solution [n]\". The [n] represents an integer that corresponds to how many SSMS IDE windows you have open. I only had one IDE open, with two query windows open, so I had a "\Solution 1\" folder with two files in it: _AutoRecover.vs47E8.sql & _AutoRecover.vsD5FD.sql.

Try it out. Open the folder mentioned above and open a new SSMS IDE and Query window and start typing out a quick SELECT. After about 5 minutes, you will see a new file prefixed with "_AutoRecover.vsXXXX.sql". The X’s are alphanumeric values that change with every file. The new file will get auto saved in 5 min increments from there on. When you close SSMS or a query window and it asks you if you want to save, click No, and watch the auto-generated file delete itself.

Wow, that was a HUGE relief. SSMS 2005 and higher has this feature built in. Thank you Microsoft for saving me from my own carelessness.