MDF File Structure?

  • Afternoon all,

    Was wondering if anyone could help me out or advise.

    I am trying to maintain a large MDF file, which contains approx 240 GB of data and has roughly 175 GB reserved for indexes.

    I would expect the file itself to therefore be not much bigger than 430GB, including some space to allow for growth.

    I can shrink the file down to this approximate size, using the shrinkfile command, leaving ~5% free space.

    However, my problem is, that with any reindex and stats update, the file jumps up to 670 GB in size, yet when I query the file, it still shows the same table allocations as above.

    None of the tables have a large amount of unallocated space so can anyone advise where all the space in the file may be going, or a good method of tracking down what is causing this significant additional growth?

    I don't like to carry out a shrinkfile without a good reason and without updating the statistics afterwards, but 240GB+ of unaccounted filespace seems excessive, particularly when this carries onto test and dev.

    Thanks in advance for any answers!

  • Please don't cross post. It just wastes peoples time and fragments replies.

    No replies to this thread please. Direct replies to: http://www.sqlservercentral.com/Forums/Topic1042519-391-1.aspx

    Gail Shaw
    Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server, MVP, M.Sc (Comp Sci)
    SQL In The Wild: Discussions on DB performance with occasional diversions into recoverability

    We walk in the dark places no others will enter
    We stand on the bridge and no one may pass

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