I am in the process of purging data from a multi-terabyte database which only has two data files on the PRIMARY file group. I expect to free up at least 50% of space within the data files. I need to reclaim that space and am looking for the most efficient way to do it.
The tables are a combination of heaps and clustered tables. I am aware of the fragmentation issue by using the shrink command and will handle that separately if needed. Unfortunately, I prefer not to create a secondary file group and move each table individually. However, the shrink command either reorganizing or empty file options are running 16+ hours.
What is the recommended solution for this scenario?