Database is being used by another process … but what process?

Question

I have written a very small C# program, that uses a very small SQL Server database, purely for some learning & testing purposes. The database is used in this one new pro

Answer 1

Try using Process Explorer written by Mark Russinovich, a Technical Fellow at Microsoft. It's a standard swiss-army tool in the pocket of Windows Admins/Developers. It can show you what processes are holding handles on resources in the system.

Once you've got Process Explorer installed, try the following:

1. Get your system into a fail-state (such that running your program doesn't work).
2. Start up Process Explorer (you'll need to be an Admin to make full-use of its features).
3. Click "Find" in the menu bar at the top and type in the name of your .mdf or .ldf files.

The search results should display a process/service with a handle on one of the resources still held by a wrongly-terminated process.