SQL Server: Database stuck in “Restoring” state

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I backed up a database:

BACKUP DATABASE MyDatabase
TO DISK = 'MyDatabase.bak'
WITH INIT --overwrite existing

And then tried to restore it:

RESTORE DATABASE MyDatabase
   FROM DISK = 'MyDatabase.bak'
   WITH REPLACE --force restore over specified database

And now the database is stuck in the restoring state.

Some people have theorized that it’s because there was no log file in the backup, and it needed to be rolled forward using:

RESTORE DATABASE MyDatabase
WITH RECOVERY

Except that, of course, fails:

Msg 4333, Level 16, State 1, Line 1
The database cannot be recovered because the log was not restored.
Msg 3013, Level 16, State 1, Line 1
RESTORE DATABASE is terminating abnormally.

And exactly what you want in a catastrophic situation is a restore that won’t work.

The backup contains both a data and log file:

RESTORE FILELISTONLY 
FROM DISK = 'MyDatabase.bak'

Logical Name    PhysicalName
=============   ===============
MyDatabase    C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL.1\MSSQL\DATA\MyDatabase.mdf
MyDatabase_log  C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL.1\MSSQL\DATA\MyDatabase_log.LDF

27 s
27

I had this situation restoring a database to an SQL Server 2005 Standard Edition instance using Symantec Backup Exec 11d. After the restore job completed the database remained in a “Restoring” state. I had no disk space issues– the database simply didn’t come out of the “Restoring” state.

I ran the following query against the SQL Server instance and found that the database immediately became usable:

RESTORE DATABASE <database name> WITH RECOVERY

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