• If you know for sure that you've removed data permanently from the database and the data is not going to just grow to refill the space you freed up, you can do a one-time shrink on the database. The problem most people run into is repeatedly shrinking, growing, shrinking, growing, shrinking... Which leads to major issues. Shrinking once, not followed by another batch of growth, is not a big deal.

    But...

    I'd be very sure that you're not going to grow again. If you even suspect it might be an issue, I'd leave it alone and not shrink.

    "The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood"
    - Theodore Roosevelt

    Author of:
    SQL Server Execution Plans
    SQL Server Query Performance Tuning