What is the best practice for backing up a database in Simple mode? I am trying to create a SQL Job for backing up my database.  I want to have:


A weekly full backup
A daily differential backup
Something that will clean up backups that are older that 14 days


I started doing this with the Maintenance Plan, but decided managing it through jobs would be more flexible.

My questions are: how do I name the backup files?  Do I name them with a date naming convention and use the same convention to delete old files?  Is there an easier way?

If I'm over thinking this and should be using a Maintenance Plan, I would appreciate that answer as well.
I'd recommend Ola's scripts for SQL Server maintenance - backups, re-indexing, checkDB, house-keeping, everything! It takes care of naming conventions too! They are very clever, and award winning too!!!! :)

Personally, if your databases are small, I'd keep to a full daily backup schedule. I believe Microsoft recommend that as well - simplicity is best approach.

Ola's scripts:
http://ola.hallengren.com/