Backing up and deleting a database.

We have a database that grows in size quite quickly. Of course we
backup nightly and keep a weeks worth of data

However we need to keep a few months data online, but the rest can be
archived as it will be unlikley that it will be used again.

As I see it we can:
1) Run a query to drop/delete old data, the downside here is that we lose it.
2) Stop the database (this is important because clients are writing to
it), back it up, delete it and recreate the database. Has anyone done
this? Do they have a script for htis?

I would appreciate any comments about what approaches have been used that work.

Thanks for any info.

Andrew

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Andrew J. P. Maclean
Centre for Autonomous Systems
The Rose Street Building J04
The University of Sydney 2006 NSW
AUSTRALIA
Ph: +61 2 9351 3283
Fax: +61 2 9351 7474
URL: http://www.acfr.usyd.edu.au/
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