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                                         sqlmjkm 
                                        Starting Member 
                                         
                                        
                                        14 Posts  | 
                                        
                                        
                                            
                                            
                                             Posted - 2014-02-27 : 08:33:55
                                            
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                                            | Hello. When doing a shrink database - Under "Available free space" - What percentage % free would you say is in the danger zone? What are the ranges you think are acceptable and at what % will we start to see performance issues.Also... is there documentation on this anywhere?Thank you! | 
                                             
                                         
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                                     djj55 
                                    Constraint Violating Yak Guru 
                                     
                                    
                                    352 Posts  | 
                                    
                                      
                                        
                                          
                                           
                                            Posted - 2014-02-27 : 11:14:06
                                          
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                                          | It depends on the data. Do you have a lot of inserts?  Performance may be hurt if the database needs more room and expands often.djj  | 
                                         
                                        
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                                     tkizer 
                                    Almighty SQL Goddess 
                                     
                                    
                                    38200 Posts  | 
                                    
                                      
                                        
                                          
                                           
                                            Posted - 2014-03-02 : 18:30:03
                                          
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                                          | Only do a shrink when you know you don't need that extra space for a very long time. When I do shrink a database, I leave at least 10% of free space but typically 20%. I do not shrink just because I have more than 20%. I shrink only on rare occasions, such as when we do a massive delete and need that space for some other database. % has nothing to do with performance except as djj55 mentions regarding having to expand the file. Tara KizerSQL Server MVP since 2007http://weblogs.sqlteam.com/tarad/  | 
                                         
                                        
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