Complete, Differential, Transaction Log -- More backup questions

Greetings all,
I am new to this Newsgroup, so forgive me if my question seems stupid.
We currently have a payroll system that runs on SQL Server 2000. We are
doing a full backup (to a local hard disk) every night of the main database,
which is about 55GB and then sending the SQL Backup off to tape. We can keep
2, maybe 3 days backup online, but space is getting tight.
I have suggested that we do 1 complete backup at the beginning of the
week, then a Differential backup every night, and a transaction log backup
every couple of hours during the day.
My question for you people. If I do the complete backup on Sunday
night, a differential on Monday and Tuesday night, and a couple of
Transaction Log backups on Wednesday, and the System crashes late Wednesday
do I have to restore both Mon and Tue differential and all the Wed
Transaction Logs and restoring the complete from Sun, or can I just restore
the Sun complete, the Tue night differential and the last Transaction Log
from Wed?
I think my actual question is: "Is the Differential backup all the
differences from the last complete or the last Differential, and does the
Transaction Log backup get everything from the last Differential?"
Thanks much
Raymond Fantasia
Fry''s Electronics
ISD DepartmentHi
answered in microsoft.public.sqlserver.newusers
Please do not multi-post as it is harder to know if the question has been
answered yet.
Regards
--
Mike Epprecht, Microsoft SQL Server MVP
Zurich, Switzerland
IM: mike@.epprecht.net
MVP Program: http://www.microsoft.com/mvp
Blog: http://www.msmvps.com/epprecht/
"Ray Fantasia" <RayFantasia@.discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:A8241F2A-6630-4B96-A9A0-2CB30BEEA7E9@.microsoft.com...
> Greetings all,
> I am new to this Newsgroup, so forgive me if my question seems stupid.
> We currently have a payroll system that runs on SQL Server 2000. We are
> doing a full backup (to a local hard disk) every night of the main
> database,
> which is about 55GB and then sending the SQL Backup off to tape. We can
> keep
> 2, maybe 3 days backup online, but space is getting tight.
> I have suggested that we do 1 complete backup at the beginning of the
> week, then a Differential backup every night, and a transaction log backup
> every couple of hours during the day.
> My question for you people. If I do the complete backup on Sunday
> night, a differential on Monday and Tuesday night, and a couple of
> Transaction Log backups on Wednesday, and the System crashes late
> Wednesday
> do I have to restore both Mon and Tue differential and all the Wed
> Transaction Logs and restoring the complete from Sun, or can I just
> restore
> the Sun complete, the Tue night differential and the last Transaction Log
> from Wed?
> I think my actual question is: "Is the Differential backup all the
> differences from the last complete or the last Differential, and does the
> Transaction Log backup get everything from the last Differential?"
> Thanks much
> Raymond Fantasia
> Fry''s Electronics
> ISD Department