How do I find the data directory for a SQL Server instance?

Question

We have a few huge databases (20GB+) which mostly contain static lookup data. Because our application executes joins against tables in these databases, they have t

Answer 1

As of Sql Server 2012, you can use the following query:

SELECT SERVERPROPERTY('INSTANCEDEFAULTDATAPATH') as [Default_data_path], SERVERPROPERTY('INSTANCEDEFAULTLOGPATH') as [Default_log_path];

(This was taken from a comment at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms174396.aspx, and tested.)