There are number of ways to back up your local database. Please use the following guide only as an example and refer to Microsoft documentation for more details. Connect to your SQL Server Instance with Management Studio Navigate to your database in Object Explorer and right click on it Select Task/Backup from the menu Verify that the correct database name is in the drop-down dialog next to the "Database" label Choose simple recovery model and full backup type In the "Destination" section, make sure you choose only one destination directory. Remove all destinations if there are any and click the "Add" button Click the "..." button and navigate to the desired destination where you want your backup to be saved Give your backup a name with a .bak extension, e.g. AdventureWorks.bak. Click OK, then OK again If you are using an enterprise edition of SQL Server 2008, you can choose compress backup on the Options page You can select all or none as Reliability options Click the "OK" button to process the backup
