deleting giant database

I have been asked if it's possible to delete a big database - over 40GB. My
initial reaction was "sure, why not?" but now I am wondering if there might
be any issues?What kind of issues? If you're worried about a performance hit to the rest
of the server, I don't think that's a problem; the files will be deallocated
by the file system, but not overwritten, so it's generally an extremely fast
process (like, virtually instantaneous).
Dropping databases is generally a lot easier than re-creating them, so back
it up first just in case! Or, another option is instead of dropping it,
detach it and move it offline. Look up sp_detach_db in BOL.
"dave" <anonymous@.discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:9208D5DE-5D3A-431B-BD77-6126A15D5CD0@.microsoft.com...
> I have been asked if it's possible to delete a big database - over 40GB.
My initial reaction was "sure, why not?" but now I am wondering if there
might be any issues?|||also 40 GB is not that big. On these days you can easily
find databases over 500GB
>--Original Message--
>What kind of issues? If you're worried about a
performance hit to the rest
>of the server, I don't think that's a problem; the files
will be deallocated
>by the file system, but not overwritten, so it's
generally an extremely fast
>process (like, virtually instantaneous).
>Dropping databases is generally a lot easier than re-
creating them, so back
>it up first just in case! Or, another option is instead
of dropping it,
>detach it and move it offline. Look up sp_detach_db in
BOL.
>
>
>"dave" <anonymous@.discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in
message
>news:9208D5DE-5D3A-431B-BD77-
6126A15D5CD0@.microsoft.com...
database - over 40GB.
>My initial reaction was "sure, why not?" but now I am
wondering if there
>might be any issues?
>
>.
>|||Execpt for defraging your hard disk, there is none really.
You may be better of doing it though EA as it will automatically remove any
Agent Jobs, and occasionally it does not delete the logs files you you may n
eed to do it by hand, other than that have fun ;)
J
-- dave wrote: --
I have been asked if it's possible to delete a big database - over 40GB. My
initial reaction was "sure, why not?" but now I am wondering if there might
be any issues?|||Thanks for catching that - I meant 400 GB. Does that make a difference?|||No.
Dropping a DB doesn't really do anything to the server. Drop it from SQL EM
and it will automatically remove the files. You might take a small hit when
that happens. But it woudl be small. A detach or a manual drop would have
close to zero impact on the DB server.
You might want to think about simply detaching it and leaving it lilke that
for a few days. That way you can get it back easy if you decide it was an
ooops idea to begin with.
Brian Moran
Principal Mentor
Solid Quality Learning
SQL Server MVP
http://www.solidqualitylearning.com
"dave" <anonymous@.discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:A790AFC1-0E30-4829-B314-1BC173BCD8C7@.microsoft.com...
> Thanks for catching that - I meant 400 GB. Does that make a difference?