Change the default backup folder in SQL Server

Problem

When you install SQL Server, the installation path is generally as follows: C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\mssql.2\mssql. There are also folders of data files and backup files in this directory. In SQL Server Management Studio, you can change the default location of data and log files in all new databases, but you cannot change the default directory for backups. Can I change the default directory for backups so that I don't have to specify a directory every time I make a backup?

Expert answers

These default data files, log files, and backed-up directories are stored in the system registry. As already mentioned, you can change the default data and log directories by using SQL Server Management Studio, right click on the server name and select Properties to open the directory to the Database Settings page shown below:

But if you search all the pages in the database settings, you won't find anything that shows the default backup directory. To find these, we need to view them in the registry.

If we open the registry through Regedit or some other tool and browse to the registration entry:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server\mssql.2\mssqlserver or similar to your SQL Server instance's registry entry, Then we will see the following information. The following high brightness row shows the default directory for the backup in this instance.