--- title: "Move Database Files | Microsoft Docs" ms.custom: "" ms.date: "03/14/2017" ms.prod: "sql-server-2016" ms.reviewer: "" ms.suite: "" ms.technology: - "database-engine" ms.tgt_pltfrm: "" ms.topic: "article" helpviewer_keywords: - "disaster recovery [SQL Server], moving database files" - "files [SQL Server], moving" - "data files [SQL Server], moving" - "file moving [SQL Server]" - "moving full-text catalogs" - "moving databases" - "full-text catalogs [SQL Server], moving" - "moving database files" - "scheduled disk maintenance [SQL Server]" - "moving files" - "relocating database files" - "planned database relocations [SQL Server]" - "databases [SQL Server], moving" ms.assetid: 89f01b10-5fae-4ed8-b0fb-a4b9f540fd28 caps.latest.revision: 34 author: "BYHAM" ms.author: "rickbyh" manager: "jhubbard" --- # Move Database Files In [!INCLUDE[ssNoVersion](../../includes/ssnoversion-md.md)], you can move system and user databases by specifying the new file location in the FILENAME clause of the [ALTER DATABASE](../../t-sql/statements/alter-database-transact-sql.md) statement. Data, log, and full-text catalog files can be moved in this way. This may be useful in the following situations: - Failure recovery. For example, the database is in suspect mode or has shut down, because of a hardware failure. - Planned relocation. - Relocation for scheduled disk maintenance. ## In This Section |Topic|Description| |-----------|-----------------| |[Move User Databases](../../relational-databases/databases/move-user-databases.md)|Describes the procedures for moving user database files and full-text catalog files to a new location.| |[Move System Databases](../../relational-databases/databases/move-system-databases.md)|Describes the procedures for moving system database files to a new location.| ## See Also [ALTER DATABASE (Transact-SQL)](../../t-sql/statements/alter-database-transact-sql.md) [CREATE DATABASE (SQL Server Transact-SQL)](../../t-sql/statements/create-database-sql-server-transact-sql.md) [Database Detach and Attach (SQL Server)](../../relational-databases/databases/database-detach-and-attach-sql-server.md)