If you have LOB data your shrink will be slow
http://www.sqlskills.com/blogs/paul/why-lob-data-makes-shrink-run-slooooowly-t-sql-tuesday-006/
Paul Randal's shrink alternative is the method I use when I have to reclaim space from my files.
http://www.sqlskills.com/blogs/paul/why-you-should-not-shrink-your-data-files/
So what if you *do* need to run a shrink? For instance, if you’ve deleted a large proportion of a very large database and the database isn’t likely to grow, or you need to empty a file before removing it?
The method I like to recommend is as follows:
•Create a new filegroup
•Move all affected tables and indexes into the new filegroup using the CREATE INDEX … WITH (DROP_EXISTING = ON) ON syntax, to move the tables and remove fragmentation from them at the same time
•Drop the old filegroup that you were going to shrink anyway (or shrink it way down if its the primary filegroup)
