SQL Server Backup days

Question

I have a server running Windows Server 2008 SP2, and SQL Server 2005 Express.

There is a daily backup which runs via the Windows Task Scheduler. It keeps the last 7 days of backups and deletes the earlier ones automatically.

How/where do I change the number of days of backups that it keeps ?

UPDATE: As per comments to the question, here is the contents of the script that is running:

exec expressmaint
   @database      = 'xxxx', 
   @optype        = 'DB',
   @backupfldr    = 'c:\sql_data\backup',
   @reportfldr    = 'c:\sql_data\backup\reports',
   @verify        = 1,
   @dbretainunit  = 'weeks',
   @dbretainval   = 1,
   @rptretainunit = 'weeks',
   @rptretainval  = 1,
   @report        = 1
go

I would now like to store 4 days of backups instead of 7

Answer 1

So your task is calling a T-SQL script that is being executed against the instance of SQL Server. It is calling a stored procedure that has the T-SQL commands to do the backups and cleanup, at least according to the variables (all the "@words"). I would guess this stored procedure expressmaint is stored in the master database. If you are familar with T-SQL you can open up SSMS, find this stored procedure, right-click on it and then left-click on "modify". This will open up the procedure and show you all the code it is executing. Making your changes and then clicking "execute" (or F5 key) will update the procedure, but don't do this until you are sure what you are changing.

From what the script looks like I would gather that @dbretainunit = 'weeks', @dbretainval = 1, are the variables that pertain to how long your backups are kept. You will need to determine in the stored procedure how it is handling these variables. It might be basic and just simply change it to @dbretainunit = 'days', @dbretainval = 4, per your requirement. However you will not know that until you verify what it does.