Delete old years

You may have 2 ways:

1. Open a new blank company file and utilize a migration tool.

https://transactionpro.grsm.io/qbd

2. Consider buying a 3rd party condense service to remove older transactions.

Contact us in private for details.

If I buy a new quick books.   Can I transfer only the past 8 years for example.  ?   Is this easy to do 

It is not easy but you can learn to do so. Utilize the migration tool as I mentioned earlier. You can filter and only export the last 8 years data out to XLS by the exporter tool and utilize the importer tool into a new company file. You will start from CoA then List and finally Transactions.

You can also purchase the one time (outright) license for QB Desktop 2021 to lower your expense if required.