Reducing Size Of SQL Backup?
If it is the backup that keeps growing and growing, I had the same problem. It is not a 'problem' of course, this is happening by design - you are just making a backup 'set' that will simply expand until all available space is taken.
To avoid this, you've got to change the overwrite options. In the SQL management studio, right-click your DB, TASKS - BACKUP, then in the window for the backup you'll see it defaults to the 'General' page. Change this to 'Options' and you'll get a different set of choices.
The default option at the top is 'Append to the existing media set'. This is what makes your backup increase in size indefinitely. Change this to 'Overwrite all existing backup sets' and the backup will always be only as big as one entire backup, the latest one.
(If you have a SQL script doing this, turn 'NOINIT' to 'INIT')
CAUTION: This means the backup will only be the latest changes - if you made a mistake three days ago but you only have last night's backup, you're stuffed. Only use this method if you have a backup regime that copies your .bak file daily to another location, so you can go back to any one of those files from previous days.
Several things to check:
is your database in "Simple" recovery mode? If so, it'll produce a lot less transaction log entries, and the backup will be smaller. Recommended for development - but not for production
if it's in "FULL" recovery mode - do you do regular transaction log backups? That should limit the growth of the transaction log and thus reduce the overall backup size
have you run a
DBCC SHRINKDATABASE(yourdatabasename)on it lately? That may helpdo you have any log / logging tables in your database that are just filling up over time? Can you remove some of those entries?
You can find the database's recovery model by going to the Object Explorer, right click on your database, select "Properties", and then select the "Options" tab on the dialog:
Marc