SQL Server 2005 database backup progammatically

Use the inbuilt backup capabilities of SQL Server through a maintenance plan if you need a backup to occur on a schedule, which is better than having to get a user to remember to do it.

However if you feel you want to run it through code use the folowing sql command;

BACKUP DATABASE [DatabaseName] TO  DISK = 
    N'C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL.1\MSSQL\Backup\DatabaseName_backup_201002021714.bak' WITH NOFORMAT, 
    NOINIT,  NAME = N'DatabaseName_backup_20100202171425', SKIP, 
    REWIND, NOUNLOAD,  STATS = 10

Just remember to replace "DatabaseName" with the name of the database to backup.

There are many ways to do this:

1. Using SMO (Management Objects)

using Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.Smo;

Server svr = new Server();
Backup bkp = new Backup();
bkp.Devices.AddDevice(@"C:\YourDatabase.bak", DeviceType.File);
bkp.Database = "YourDATABASE";
bkp.Action = BackupActionType.Database;
bkp.Initialize = true;
bkp.SqlBackup(svr);

This is the easiest way. But you need the reference to SMO objects.

2. Use Backup script to do this :

string sql = "BACKUP DATABASE [YourDatabase] TO  DISK = N'C:\YourDatabase.bak' WITH NOFORMAT, NOINIT,  NAME = N'YourDatabase-Full Database Backup', SKIP, NOREWIND, NOUNLOAD,  STATS = 10"

using(SqlConnection con = new SqlConnection(masterconstring))
{
   SqlCommand cmd = new SqlCommand(sql);
   cmd.ExecuteNonQuery();
}

In this case you can connect normally to the master database and run the backup script.

:thumbsup: