SQL TRN files are accumulating

On the first day create a full
backup, on the second and the third a differential backup, on the fourth day
repeat the pattern.

Make sure transaction log backups are frequent enough (based on your
workload).

This practice alows you to remove all files older than six days. And when I
say remove, I mean store in a dark, cool and dry place. :)

still if u have memory problems please go through the below links

http://www.databasejournal.com/features/mssql/article.php/3556461
http://www.databasejournal.com/features/mssql/article.php/3558641
http://www.databasejournal.com/features/mssql/print.php/3558641

I want to thank you for taking the time to address this issue. I feel I need to clarify a few things. First everything (OS and SQL)is backed  up full on tape everyday. Second SQL is doing its own backups, now a full one everday of a single week and then it repeats. I would think that the transaction logs (*.TRN files) are sql's way of tracking changes between backups. So in my way of thinking there should only be logs for between backups. (To me a backup is a *.BAK file). I have *.TRN files going all the way back to 8/01/05 when I did the migration to the new server.
So with this in mind  are the backups that you are talking about the "in SQL backups" or on tape backups. And why are the *.TRN files accumulating and not being cleaned up by SQL.
This has caused the database to report errors twice due to the hard drive running out of disk space. And I don't feel comfortable going in and manually deleting the *.TRN files until I feel I know what exactly I'm deleting.

thats what you want exactly in the links which i sent
Please go through the links which i mentioned in the above comments

You could try the following :
Open SQL Enterprise Manager
Goto Management/Database Maintenance Plans, right click, & select new maintenance plan.
Here, select your database ( or all ) you can configure a backup maintenance plan that will auto remove old backups ( 5th window )
This will help keep your disk space tidy.

If you are not familiar with this I can give detailed instructions, but it is very easy to use.

Ok you have me dealing with the future database maintenance. And don't let me get you wrong. There is already a database maintenance going on. The question is, "Why are the *.trn files accumulating in the first place?"

I just looked at the database maintenance routine. And it is already set to delete transaction logs older that 2 weeks. Well that hasn't been happening. What do I do about that?

Have you looked at the SQL Server Agent ?
Are there backup jobs scheduled there ?

On your maintenance plan is the transaction log being backed up, and have you set it to auto delete older files. ?

Joe

Yes...
and based on that thought, I took the liberty of deleting any trn file that was older than 3 weeks. That cleared up 43 gigs....
Now to find out why its not deleting them automatically. It seems to purge the bak files older than a week just fine.

er, actually no, but on that recomendation i will give that a try. And thanks again for your feedback.

I meant to split the award to both joseph and sanjeeve as both of you were recommending fixes through the SQL enterprise manager. Perhaps someone could fix that. The solution revolves around the maintenance plans and the deletion of the older BAK and TRN files automatically. I now have to wait these next two weeks to see if the older files are actually being deleted.
Thanks again guys for your help.