How to: View or Change the Recovery Model of a Database (SQL Server Management Studio)

This topic explains how to view or change the recovery model of a database.

Important

Before changing the recovery model of a database, you should understand the impact of the change on your backup and restore strategy. For more information, see Considerations for Switching from the Simple Recovery Model or Considerations for Switching from the Full or Bulk-Logged Recovery Model, depending on the current recovery model.

To view or change the recovery model of a database

After connecting to the appropriate instance of the Microsoft SQL Server Database Engine, in Object Explorer, click the server name to expand the server tree.
Expand Databases, and, depending on the database, either select a user database or expand System Databases and select a system database.
Right-click the database, and then click Properties, which opens the Database Properties dialog box.
In the Select a Page pane, click Options.
The current recovery model is displayed in the Recovery model list box.
Optionally, to change the recovery model select a different model list. The choices are Full, Bulk-logged, or Simple.