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I have recently had to create a new windows user account (due to problems I will not go into here) and have had to delete my old user account. I have reinstalled SQL Server 2012 Express onto the new user account and when I log in to the Management Studio with the server name as MYPC\SQLEXPRESS the databases that were associated to my old account are still there.

Unfortunately, and annoyingly, I cannot actually do anything with them!

My windows user account is an administrator and I run Management Studio as an Administrator but when I try to view or access the databases in any way I get an error message saying that I do not have the right permissions. I have tried to change my permission via Security -> Logins but it tells me I do not have permissions to change that either.

Does anyone have any ideas how I can get back into these databases or are they locked and lost forever?

Thanks

marc_s
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SMLBW
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  • You should add yourself to sysadmin role. Already answered here: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/9889334/how-do-i-grant-myself-admin-access-to-a-local-sql-server-instance – dean Mar 26 '15 at 10:01
  • It's actually rather simple - you have to take ownership. System administrator can always do anything with all the databases (you're already behind all the security layers at that point). You can just add a login/role for yourself in the target database. – Luaan Mar 26 '15 at 10:07
  • Thanks Dean and Luaan. I had thought I had tried simply adding myself as sysadmin but was missing a small part. Many thanks – SMLBW Mar 27 '15 at 10:47

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