Delete a Backup Device (SQL Server)

Applies to: SQL Server

This topic describes how to delete a backup device in SQL Server by using SQL Server Management Studio or Transact-SQL.

In This Topic

• Before you begin:

  Security

• To delete a backup device, using:

  SQL Server Management Studio

  Transact-SQL

Requires membership in the diskadmin fixed server role.

1. After connecting to the appropriate instance of the SQL Server Database Engine, in Object Explorer, click the server name to expand the server tree.

2. Expand Server Objects, and then expand Backup Devices.

3. Right-click the device you want, and then click Delete.

4. In the Delete Object dialog box, verify that the correct device name appears in the Object Name column.

5. Click OK.

1. Connect to the Database Engine.

2. From the Standard bar, click New Query.

3. Copy and paste the following example into the query. This example shows how to use sp_dropdevice to delete a backup device. Execute the first example to create the mybackupdisk backup device and the physical name c:\backup\backup1.bak. Execute sp_dropdevice to delete the mybackupdisk backup device. The delfile parameter deletes the physical name.

--Define a backup device and physical name.   
USE AdventureWorks2022;  
GO  
EXEC sp_addumpdevice 'disk', 'mybackupdisk', 'c:\backup\backup1.bak' ;  
GO  
--Delete the backup device and the physical name.  
USE AdventureWorks2022;  
GO  
EXEC sp_dropdevice ' mybackupdisk ', 'delfile' ;  
GO  
  

View the Properties and Contents of a Logical Backup Device (SQL Server)
sys.backup_devices (Transact-SQL)
BACKUP (Transact-SQL)
Backup Devices (SQL Server)
sp_addumpdevice (Transact-SQL)