Hi Jeff,

I still think we're talking about different things here. I don't see how partitioned views in SQL 2000 are going to help (I have experience with partitioned tables in SQL2005 and beyond which makes it easy to switch out a partition based on date), but if the TS is an expert on SQL 2000 I will not hold him back. I still maintain that to delete info, it's worth his while to check whether indexes are in place to aid in doing that. Furthermore he mentions years of neglect, and failing backups, so chances are even that there were no index rebuild tasks scheduled. So, I always try to start from there, instead of adding complexity. And I would never recommend going into simple recovery mode, as backups can be done while the delete job runs, to free up space in the log. I would always want to have a full DR path to enable me to do a point in time restore.

Regards,

Peter