snapshot file sizes

  • I made a snapshot of a 50GB database and the snapshot file reported its size as 50GB.  I thought it was supposed to be tiny to start and only grow as changes were made.  On the other hand, the disk free space does not show 50GB less.  Rather strange to see two 50GB files on a 98GB partition with 48GB free.  What's going on with this strange spoof of the actual size versus reported size?

  • I was at a SQL Server conference lately and this was briefly explained.  Even though the snapshot appears to take up 50 GB, it physically only takes up the amount of space for data changes since the snapshot.  They said if you go to the file properties you should see a much smaller number for the size (or "size on disk"--can't remember which) and that this is the amount of space that the operating system sees.  At least that is the way I understood it 🙂  It would be nice if you could check it out to confirm.  I haven't tested snapshots yet...  Thanks.

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