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DCPUD
Starting Member
2 Posts |
 Posted - 2004-04-15 : 17:52:22
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| I did a backup of a 26 GB database (26 GB .mdf file) and the .bak ended up only being 700 MB. Why is there a difference in sizes? What exactly is being backed up?Thanks! |
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tkizer
Almighty SQL Goddess
38200 Posts |
Posted - 2004-04-15 : 17:56:11
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| You must have a whole lot of free space in the MDF file. The size of the database should be about equal to the size of the non-free space in the MDF file. To see how much free space you have, go to your database in Enterprise Manager, left click on it, then right click on it. Then click View, then task pad. You'll see a GUI representation of it. You should see about 25GB of free space.You'll probably want to shrink down your MDF with DBCC SHRINKFILE since 25GB of free space is a lot of free space for a small database.Tara |
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DCPUD
Starting Member
2 Posts |
Posted - 2004-04-15 : 18:10:22
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| Thanks! Do you have any caveats about using DBCC SHRINKFILE? |
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tkizer
Almighty SQL Goddess
38200 Posts |
Posted - 2004-04-15 : 18:12:20
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| Just leave about 10% free for future growth and run it after-hours so as not to impact users.Tara |
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.BAK files