how to delete a .bak file using a job in sqlserver

You can either use xp_cmdshell command to delete your *.bak files from the specified path or if you are taking regular backups using maintenance plans, then you can specify the expiry set for the backup files so that age old files would be deleted automatically by the Maintenance plan itself.

i want this in sqlserver 2000.let ud suppose the files are in c:\software and i have to delete files older than 20 hrs.can you please write the command

Vijay,

Try using a maintenance plan, configuring the CleanUp History section of it. It's very easy to do.

Rob

if we use maintainance plan(sql 2000).we can not delete backups untill the backup jobs are totally completed.i want a script using xp_cmdshell to delete back ups older than 20 hrs

Is PowerShell okay? Otherwise, you'll need VBScript, which I'm less keen on these days.

dir c:\software\*.bak | where-object -filter {$_.LastWriteTime -lt (Get-Date).AddHours(-20)} | % {$_.Delete()}

Hope this helps,

Rob