Shrinking Data Files

In SQL Server 2005 and above, free space can be reclaimed from the end of data files to remove unused pages and recover disk space. However, shrinking data files is not recommended unless the database has lost at least half of its data. This typically occurs after an activity has been performed that creates whitespace in the database, such as moving a large amount of data from one database to another, or deleting a large amount of data. Shrinking Lync Server databases is generally not recommended, since there are typically not enough deletions to cause a significant amount of free space.