shindle 17293 (12/16/2012)
Am I correct in explaining that the compressed backup size will not reduce further even if I perform a shrink on the database as the backup has already removed this free space?
Yup. Backups only include the data, not the free space. Shrink just removes the free space. You might get a tiny reduction in the backup because backups work on the extent level (allocated extents) while shrink works on the page level (free pages), but it likely won't be noticable
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