---
title: "Move Database Files"
description: "Move Database Files"
author: WilliamDAssafMSFT
ms.author: wiassaf
ms.date: "03/14/2017"
ms.service: sql
ms.topic: conceptual
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"
---
# Move Database Files
 [!INCLUDE [SQL Server](../../includes/applies-to-version/sqlserver.md)]
  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-transact-sql.md)   
 [Database Detach and Attach (SQL Server)](../../relational-databases/databases/database-detach-and-attach-sql-server.md)