As we know every database is build from two files on disk. The first file contains all data and the second file contains the log of the database. The log file grows and grows and grows...

Yesterday i had to backup a database from server A and restore it back onto server B. When i tried to restore the database i got the message that an enormous amount of disk space was needed. I discovered that my log file of the database was almost 145 Gb big. During the restoring the system tries to reserve the same amount of space which was not there.

Thanks to Bob from Logica CMG i found out that you have to do the following to shrink your database files. Open your properties of the database and go to the tab called "Options". There you will find a dropdown box for the recovery model which you have to set to "Simple".

Open the Query Analyser and execute the following command:

DBCC SHRINKDATABASE(database_name) where database_name is the name of the database.

Both files for the database are shrunk to a minimal size. Now i could easily backup my database from server A and restore it on server B.