How to recover accidentally deleted tables in SQL Server?

To restore a mistakenly deleted table, you can utilize SQL Server’s backup and restore mechanism.

1. First, restore the database using a backup file. You can use SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) or Transact-SQL (T-SQL) commands to restore the database. If you have a valid backup file, you can right-click on the database in SSMS, select “Tasks,” then choose “Restore,” select the backup file in the restore wizard and proceed with the restore operation. If using T-SQL commands, you can use the RESTORE DATABASE command to restore the database.
2. Restore the accidentally deleted table on the recovered database. Once the database recovery is complete, you can use the following methods to restore the accidentally deleted table:
3. If there is a complete database backup, it can be restored to another database using the RESTORE command. Then, the tables can be copied from the new database to the original database using the SELECT INTO statement.
4. If there is no full database backup available, but a transaction log backup exists, you can use the RESTORE command to restore the transaction log backup file to a new database. Then, you can use the INSERT INTO statement to copy the accidentally deleted table data from the new database to the original database.
5. If a complete database backup and transaction log backup are not available, but the database is in the full or simple recovery mode, and the accidentally deleted table was recently deleted, a third-party tool like ApexSQL Log can be used to read the transaction log, identify the relevant transactions for the deleted table, and recover it.

Please be aware to test in a secure environment before performing any recovery operations, and it is recommended to create a backup of the database before executing any operations.