Delete Versus Deactivate

Neither the Delete nor the Deactivate functions in Microsoft CRM physically delete the record in question from the CRM database. A separate Windows 2000 service, the Microsoft CRM Deletion Service, monitors tables to find records marked for deletion and then performs the physical deletion. This service looks for records marked for deletion every two hours and can be turned off if physical deletion is not desired. Both the deletion and deactivation commands simply change the value of the field named DeletionStateCode in the underlying database table so that the user will no longer see this record. This is what is known as a logical deletion. The Delete function logically deletes the record in question as well as all of its child records (opportunities, notes, activities, and so on). The Deactivate function only logically deletes the record in question in certain views. Deactivated records can be seen by selecting the inactive records view from view control. However, they won't show up in searches or in other views.

The three possible values for the DeletionStateCode field are

• 0: The record is active

• 1: The record has been deactivated

• 2: The record has been deleted

When a record with children records is deleted, the DeletionStateCode for the record and its children are set to a value of 2.