# Miscellaneous > General Database Discussions >  SQL Hot back up

## halidziya

How Can I stop the ms sql to write disk for a while . I don't want to stop service I want to use another temrorary device to write continuous data.
I want to make backup program for storage units when To make it consistent I have to make MS sql to vdi mode (?) . How can I achive that ?

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## rmiao

Why don't backup db with sql backup statement? It's online operation.

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## UmarIqbalDar

take that db offline. it will error out but would not write to disk.

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## skhanal

If you are looking for something like ALTER DATABASE BEGIN BACKUP in Oracle, then it is not available.

Putting database offline or read only may work, but you may have to kill any active connections.

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## halidziya

I want to stop writing to backup with 3rd party application.

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## skhanal

Can you clarify?. Are you using third party backup software that is backing up SQL database?

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## halidziya

I want to make new application for backup 
I used VDI examples that worked but it is very complicated . I have to make new class to use c++ application in my c# code

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## rmiao

You want to write your own db backup app for sql server? Why have to stop writing to db? Backup should be online process, who will use it otherwise?

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## halidziya

Because I want to take snapshot of complete disk . To make it cosistent I have to stop DB to write disk. It can work on memory to accessibility.

I don't now really how database working or what is transaction. There is Documantation about this here : http://www.microsoft.com/technet/pro...sqlwriter.mspx

They write a lot of thing but nothing about code.

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## rmiao

You can't access sql db in memory if it's down.

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## szlamany

> Because I want to take snapshot of complete disk . To make it cosistent I have to stop DB to write disk. It can work on memory to accessibility.
> 
> I don't now really how database working or what is transaction. There is Documantation about this here : http://www.microsoft.com/technet/pro...sqlwriter.mspx
> 
> They write a lot of thing but nothing about code.


The MS SQL engine is always writing to either the transaction log or the database itself.  You would almost need to detach the DB from the service to halt all that I/O so that the "disk image" software you want to develop can function.

The preferred method is to have the MS SQL engine create a BACKUP file (.BAK) - this is done while users are on-line and really captures the "snapshot" of that moment in time.  When you restore from that .BAK any "transaction" that were in process and not yet committed are rolled back automatically - thus making it a truly hot backup.

Commercial backup tools have SQL agents that assist the backup in handling the always open database and transaction files.

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## johnny773

There is a 3rd party SQL Server backup tool (litespeed) which can be used as an alternative to the standard MS one.

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