Bernard,

Thanks for clarifying the backup process.

I have successfully (no errors) run:

backup log mydatabase with TRUNCATE_ONLY

but it returns immediately on a 10 gigabyte log file, and hasn't reduced the size according to the properties of the database.

Any notions on this?

>Hi Terry:
>
>Your command will just truncate the transaction log. Basically, this will only free up space used by the log for committed transactions, and does not perform a backup. If that is your purpose (truncating the log), you do not need to specify the backup device. You can run...
>
>BACKUP LOG mydatabase WITH TRUNCATE_ONLY
>
>If you want to back up the transaction log, you should not specify TRUNCATE_ONLY. Basically, the statement may look something like
>
>BACKUP LOG mydatabase TO mydatalog
>
>Before you run this, make sure the backup device mydatalog already exists. If not, create it using the system stored procedure SP_ADDUMPDEVICE. You need to create it only once. Your error message suggests mydatalog is still not created.
>
>Hope this helps...
>
>>Besides the maintenance plan wizard which I've put into action, how with query do I >execute a backup of log?
>
>>I try:
>
>>backup log mydatabase to mydatalog with TRUNCATE_ONLY
>
>>but it doesn't like the mydatalog part.
>
>>something about sysdevices does not recognize the mydatalog.