SQL Server stores data in "pages" or allocation units of approximately 8,000 bytes. If you want to see the raw data in a given database page and interpret the information produced, you can dump that data to the console (or to the SQL Server log) using the undocumented DBCC PAGE command.
Here is the command syntax.
DBCC PAGE ({dbid|dbname}, pagenum [,print option] [,cache] [,logical])
dbid|dbname: The name or dbid for the database to be used.
pagenum: The logical or virtual page number to show; 1 is the first.
print option: An optional parameter that controls how the data is formatted.
cache: Optional parameter that indicates how caching is used.
logical: Optional parameter that determines what type of page to retrieve.
DBCC PAGE requires that you set a trace flag before it can return values to the console. To do this, use DBCC TRACEON(3604) before running DBCC PAGE. If you want to s
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end the results to the error log instead of the console, use DBCC TRACEON(3605).
Here's an example of the command at work, along with its output. Some of the flags in the output should be self-evident. For instance, if m_tornBits is anything but 1, then the "turn page" flag for that page has been set and the page is probably damaged.
DBCC TRACEON (3604)
DBCC PAGE (master, 1, 1)
DBCC execution completed. If DBCC printed error messages, contact your system administrator.
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