Reduce File Size

Everyone,
Here is what I am looking for. I have production databases (around 20GB
each). I need to have copies of these available for my developers. They
don't need the whole 20GB so what I do is delete all the records from the DB
except for, say, one month worth of records. Then I use the shrink command
to reduce the file size to few hundred MB. It works fine except it takes
forever on my lab system to shrink the DB. Is there any faster method to do
this without me having to buy a faster server?
Thank you.It will probably be faster to backup the database and zip the file. But your
developers need then
20GB to restore the database.
Tibor Karaszi, SQL Server MVP
http://www.karaszi.com/sqlserver/default.asp
http://www.solidqualitylearning.com/
Blog: http://solidqualitylearning.com/blogs/tibor/
"Dragon" <baadil_nospam@.hotmail.com> wrote in message news:eOeiceHRGHA.5296@.tk2msftngp13.phx
.gbl...
> Everyone,
> Here is what I am looking for. I have production databases (around 20GB ea
ch). I need to have
> copies of these available for my developers. They don't need the whole 20G
B so what I do is delete
> all the records from the DB except for, say, one month worth of records. T
hen I use the shrink
> command to reduce the file size to few hundred MB. It works fine except it
takes forever on my lab
> system to shrink the DB. Is there any faster method to do this without me
having to buy a faster
> server?
> Thank you.
>|||Tibor,
Thank but some of my developer systems may not be able to handle 20GBs on
their laptops. So I guess I am stuck here. :-)
"Tibor Karaszi" <tibor_please.no.email_karaszi@.hotmail.nomail.com> wrote in
message news:OTLVw6HRGHA.5908@.TK2MSFTNGP14.phx.gbl...
> It will probably be faster to backup the database and zip the file. But
> your developers need then 20GB to restore the database.
> --
> Tibor Karaszi, SQL Server MVP
> http://www.karaszi.com/sqlserver/default.asp
> http://www.solidqualitylearning.com/
> Blog: http://solidqualitylearning.com/blogs/tibor/
>
> "Dragon" <baadil_nospam@.hotmail.com> wrote in message
> news:eOeiceHRGHA.5296@.tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
>|||I see... I guess you could try the TRUNCATEONLY option of the SHRINKFILE com
mand, and pray that the
page with the highest address isn't too high up in the database file...
Tibor Karaszi, SQL Server MVP
http://www.karaszi.com/sqlserver/default.asp
http://www.solidqualitylearning.com/
Blog: http://solidqualitylearning.com/blogs/tibor/
"Dragon" <baadil_nospam@.hotmail.com> wrote in message news:uHrFdWIRGHA.1576@.tk2msftngp13.phx
.gbl...
> Tibor,
> Thank but some of my developer systems may not be able to handle 20GBs on
their laptops. So I
> guess I am stuck here. :-)
> "Tibor Karaszi" <tibor_please.no.email_karaszi@.hotmail.nomail.com> wrote i
n message
> news:OTLVw6HRGHA.5908@.TK2MSFTNGP14.phx.gbl...
>