Removing several tables out of a sql server 2005 database - make a new db or use old?

I'm killing a bunch of tables in a SQL Server db to move to an archive db. The current db has a couple of filegroups and h开发者_开发百科as been working okay growing the tables that are still there. I'll be removing multiple gigabytes, though.

Should I make a new db and move the current tables in there? I'm paranoid about not setting growth right.

There is really only one table that sees a lot of activity - and that goes up to about 14,000 rows in a four-month

It's up to what you really want to do. If you use a new db then your existing applications may have to change the connection strings to reflect the new db name.

If you are worried about the growth setting, make sure you use a good number that is close to projected growth numbers and look for the autogrow events for data and log files using the default trace. Query is given below for you. No one gets the size correctly and you make your best guess based on the data available to you and monitor the growth. If you see any data back then make the changes appropriately to bump the numbers. And also 14000 rows in 4 month period is NOT considered active at all when compared to what SQL Server can handle.

DECLARE @filename VARCHAR(255) 
SELECT @FileName = SUBSTRING(path, 0, LEN(path)-CHARINDEX('\', REVERSE(path))+1) + '\Log.trc'  
FROM sys.traces   
WHERE is_default = 1;  

--Check if the data and log files auto-growed.
SELECT 
    gt.ServerName
    , gt.DatabaseName
    , gt.TextData
    , gt.StartTime
    , gt.Success
    , gt.HostName
    , gt.NTUserName
    , gt.NTDomainName
    , gt.ApplicationName
    , gt.LoginName
FROM [fn_trace_gettable](@filename, DEFAULT) gt 
JOIN sys.trace_events te ON gt.EventClass = te.trace_event_id 
JOIN sys.databases d ON gt.DatabaseName = d.name
WHERE EventClass in ( 92, 93 ) --'Data File Auto Grow', 'Log File Auto Grow'
ORDER BY StartTime;