title: How to shrink a log file without backuping first?
body: <p>I have a SQL Server 2008 database with a <code>.mdf</code> file with 1 GB and a <code>.ldf</code> file (log) with 70 GB. I really don't know what took my log file to be so big in a week and to stop to increase, but my main issue is to fix this problem.</p>
  
  <p>I'm used to reduce the log file shrinking it, but I can only shrink IF I backup it first. If I try to shrink without backuping first (using SSMS), nothing happens, even with SSMS showing that available free space is big. I can try shrinking many times but it will work only if I backup first.</p>
  
  <p>The problem is that I can't backup it this time because I don't have free space (the total size of my HD is 120 GB).</p>
  
  <p>Note 1: my database is set to use the full recovery model because I need to be able to do point-in-time recoveries.</p>
  
  <p>Note 2: I know that shrink increases the index fragmentation. After shrinking, I can use <code>REBUILD</code> in indexes to avoid this.</p>