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      Changing the Acctivate backup directory.

      Microsoft SQL Server typically offers two ways to change the backup location for each SQL Server instance. The first, much safer and more common option, is to change the SQL Server Instance Backup Location by using SQL Server Management Studio.

      Change Backup Directory

      When selecting to back up your data from within Acctivate, Acctivate sends a command to Microsoft SQL Server to start a backup.  Microsoft SQL Server typically sets the default location of Backups to be within the SQL Server instance subdirectories.  An example of this, where the SQL Server instance name is ‘ACCTIVATE’, would be a directory path of:

      C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL10_50.ACCTIVATE\MSSQL\Backup

      Microsoft SQL Server typically offers two ways to change the backup location for each SQL Server instance. 

      Change the path using SQL Server Managment Studio (Recommended):

      1. On the Windows Server in which SQL Server is installed on, go to Start -> Programs -> Microsoft SQL Server.
      2. Select to open SQL Server Management Studio.  If you don’t have SQL Server Management Studio installed, you can download SQL Server Management Studio from here.
      3. Log into SQL Server Management Studio using either SQL authentication or Windows authentication if you are logged into Windows as an Administrator.
      4. Right-click the SQL Server instance and select Properties.
      5. Select the Database Settings section.  At the bottom of this window, you should see the Backup default location.SSMSBackupLocation
      6. Browse to the new Backup location and then close.

      Change the backup directory via the Windows Registry (Advanced):

      The second option is to use the Windows Registry to change the backup path for SQL server. This is not recommended and should only be done by an IT professional. It is recommended that you perform option 1 instead. 

      1. Before beginning, back up your registry.
      2. With the registry open, browse to the SQL Server instance registry keys for your related named instance.  An example of the key for a SQL Server 2008 instance, named ‘ACCTIVATE’ is: 
        HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL10_50.ACCTIVATE\MSSQLServer
      3. You should find a key named ‘BackupDirectory’.  If you don’t immediately find the BackupDirectory, you can consider searching the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE registry for ‘BackupDirectory’.
      4. Right-click the BackupDirectory key and select to edit.
      5. Enter in the new Backup Directory of your choosing.RegistryBackupLocation