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

You will get default location if user database by this query:

declare @DataFileName nVarchar(500)

declare @LogFileName   nVarchar(500)


set @DataFileName = (select top 1 RTRIM(LTRIM(name)) FROM master.sys.master_files where database_id >4 AND file_id = 1)+'.mdf'
set @LogFileName =   (select top 1 RTRIM(LTRIM(name)) FROM master.sys.master_files where database_id >4 AND file_id = 2)+'.ldf'

select  
( SELECT top 1 SUBSTRING(physical_name, 1, CHARINDEX(@DataFileName, LOWER(physical_name)) - 1) 
FROM master.sys.master_files
WHERE database_id >4 AND file_id = 1) as 'Data File'
,

(SELECT top 1 SUBSTRING(physical_name, 1, CHARINDEX(@LogFileName, LOWER(physical_name)) - 1)
FROM master.sys.master_files
WHERE database_id >4 AND file_id = 2)  as 'Log File'