Taking BackUp of SQL Server Database on a USB Drive

While carrying out a normal database BackUp operation, I thought of taking my database backup on a USB Drive too. So I opened up my SQL Server Management Studio > expanded ‘Server Objects’ > Right-clicked ‘Backup Devices’, and then clicked on ‘New Backup Device’. This is what I saw. The Tape option was grayed out.

Note: Microsoft says “Support for tape backup devices will be removed in a future version of SQL Server. Avoid using this feature in new development work, and plan to modify applications that currently use this feature.”

Here’s what I did to take the backup of my database on a USB. I used the sp_adddumpdevice to register the USB based tape device. What this stored proc does it adds a backup device to the sys.backup_devices catalog view. Once done, the device can then be referred to logically in BACKUP statements

QUERY

-- Add a Tape BackUp Device
USE master;
GO
EXEC sp_addumpdevice 'tape', 'TpDumpOne', '\\.\Tp0';

-- Back Up DB to the newly create Tape
USE <YourDB>
GO
Backup Database <YourDB>
TO TpDumpOne

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