I've a database on SQL Server 2008 R2. In a table there's a column that should be with type ntext but it was designed as a text column. So the data was sent, saved as text then it was saved as question marks (unrecognized).
I've changed the type to ntext. Is there's a way to restore back this saved data? I thought about tracking the captured data that was sent to the stored procedure and maintain it manually, but I searched and found no result.
Any ideas?
No, the data is lost unless you have the original data. Once written to a non-unicode column, unicode data will be lost. This is demonstrated in my answer here: Determine varchar content in nvarchar columns
Also note that ntext is deprecated. You should use nvarchar(max)
ntext , text, and image data types will be removed in a future version of Microsoft SQL Server. Avoid using these data types in new development work, and plan to modify applications that currently use them. Use nvarchar(max), varchar(max), and varbinary(max) instead.
