"Creating a bigger test database will also work, but involves a lot more work, will cause your tests to run longer, and might require you to clean up your collection of holiday pictures."

Personally, I don't care for any of the possible answers.

I've never had to cut down a 1TB database to 1GB for testing. Why would that be more work than dropping it to 5GB? I wouldn't recommend keeping so many personal pictures on your company's computer. I also wouldn't recommend doing this kind of performance testing on a laptop or desktop.

You want your testing environment to match your production environment as closely as possible. Move ALL the data back down to your dev or test server and rip into it. If you don't have the room to place it then there is a good chance you don't have a disaster recovery plan in place.

David