Thank you, starting to make sense now.

I just did a transaction log backup but unfortunately the Log.LDF is still
30GB. I was hoping that it would be extremely small now.

I am assuming that the Log.LDF has all my transactions going back for the
last two months since the databse was created. Is there some method for me
to reduce this file to say on the last couple days of transactions?

Why would SQL not have the option for this huge transaction log to be wiped
when I did the full database backup. Am I missing somethting here on the log
files purpose?

Thanks.



"Greg D. Moore (Strider)" <mooregr_deleteth1s@greenms.com> wrote in message
news:qCZgd.341053$bp1.260186@twister.nyroc.rr.com. ..
>
> "Fred" <Fred@hotmail.com> wrote in message
> news:418462d8$1@duster.adelaide.on.net...
> > I have a table in sql 2000 that is storing Financial Tick data. The
> database
> > size now appears at about 30GB and I have decided to backup the database
> and
> > store the data offsite.
> >
> > Here is where I am confused about whether only a Database (complete)
> backup
> > is necessary or whether I must also include a Transaction log backup for
> the
> > most recent data.
>
> The Full will only be complete up through any committed transaction at the
> time of its finish.
>
> Now, if you do a full once a day (say at 1:00 AM), you can restore to that
> point.
>
> But let's say your DB crashes at 11:00 PM. You've lost 22 hours worth of
> transactions.
>
> If you do a transaction backup say every hour, you could restore up
through
> the 10:00 PM log and lose less data.
>
> >
> > 1. If I use a complete Database backup only, will all my data be stored
on
> > this? (Even if I have never done a Transaction log backup)
>
> See above.
>
> >
> > 2. My Database size Data.MDF is 500MB and the Log.LDF is 30GB. If I
> complete
> > a database Backup can I now get rid of this Log file, or is it also
> storing
> > data that is necessary???? I noticed on Books online that it states
> > following a log file backup that it truncates the inactive portion of
the
> > transaction log, which would hopefully decrease this enormous log file
> size.
>
> Right.
>
> You have a couple of options here.
>
> If you don't care about transaction log backups (i.e. do the "restore once
a
> day, don't care if I lose lots of data") then set the DB to simple
recovery
> mode.
>
> However, generally you DO care about transaction log backups, which means
> you should do them.
>
> In that case your log will generally stay much smaller and you can then
> shrink it to a reasonable size.
>
> Hope that helps some.
>
>
> >
> > Thank you for your help
> >
> >
>
>