Boaz51 (6/13/2011)
I am currently working with a vendor that highly recommends doing a shrink data file or "shrink database" in their documentation once a week. They recommend this because they believe it is beneficial to remove the "white space" in the data file because of high volumes of inserts and deletes.
They are wrong. There's nothing wrong with free space in the DB, SQL in fact needs it.
It was MS Access where you had to compact and repair on a regular basis if you didn't want the file to become unusable. SQL Server != MS Access.
Regular rebuilds will sort out the partially empty pages problem (from deletes and inserts causing page splits). The shrink-reindex (grow) just wastes a hell of a lot of time and resources for no gain
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