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Where has the option to remove files older than 4 weeks gone in MS SQL 2008 and 2012

Posted By: siteadmin on 11/11/2013 11:06:00

Microsoft SQL Server 2000 has a nice simple screen that shows you, and allows you to modify when old .bak files are deleted.

However there is no such obvious version for SQL 2008... you have to do this:

In the Maintenance Plan Task find the Maintenance Cleanup Task and double click it so it appears in the right pane.  Then right-click the item in the right pane and select Edit

Then you need to click the Search Folder and delete files based on extension, enter the root folder where the backup files are, and enter the extension BAK and tick the box "include first level folders" and then finally tick the file age box.

So your final screen looks like this:

All this hassle is because apparently hacker could use the delete functionality included before to wreak havoc on your SQL installation.