Change the Default Backup Directory

I have used this on most of my servers so that when I click restore or Backup database it doesn’t go off to a directory under programme files on the C drive and goes to the root of the backup directory I use.

SQL 2005 version

This part of the script will display the current default backup directory.

DECLARE @BackupDirectory VARCHAR(100)

EXEC master..xp_regread @rootkey='HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE',

@key='SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL.1\MSSQLServer',

@value_name='BackupDirectory',

@BackupDirectory=@BackupDirectory OUTPUT

SELECT @BackupDirectory as BackupDirectory

This script will set G:\Maintenance\userData as the new default directory.

EXEC master..xp_regwrite

@rootkey='HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE',

@key='SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL.1\MSSQLServer',

@value_name='BackupDirectory',

@type='REG_SZ',

@value='G:\Maintenance\userData'

SQL 2000 version

DECLARE @BackupDirectory VARCHAR(100)

EXEC master..xp_regread @rootkey='HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE',

@key='SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MsSQLServer\MsSQLServer',

@value_name='BackupDirectory',

@BackupDirectory=@BackupDirectory OUTPUT

SELECT @BackupDirectory as BackupDirectory

EXEC master..xp_regwrite

@rootkey='HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE',

@key='SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MsSQLServer\MsSQLServer',

@value_name='BackupDirectory',

@type='REG_SZ',

@value='G:\Maintenance\userData'