Problem

GENERIC:
SQL Server Databases
The .mdf file is Relatively small in size, but the .ldf is many more times in size! It seems pretty out of proportion.

SQL Server 2005 Workgroup
The .mdf file is just over 50MB in size, but the .ldf is just over 12GB in size! It seems pretty out of proportion.

Solution

It would be best to follow Microsoft best practices for SQL Server shrinking databases and transaction logs:

Shrinking a Database
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms189080.aspx

Shrinking the Transaction Log
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms178037.aspx

How to use the DBCC SHRINKFILE statement to shrink the transaction log file in SQL Server 2005
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/907511

Shrinking the Transaction Log in SQL Server 2000 with DBCC SHRINKFILE
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/272318/

ADDITIONAL INFO:
The ldf file is where SQL Server stores the transactions. SQL Server is a transactional database and there to protect data from system crashes.When a user such as SELECTServer inserts, updates or deletes a row into the db it will start a transaction do its operation then end the transaction which will commit the data. This operation is stored in the lfd file until the next backup is run. You must be careful if you restrict the size of the ldf because when it gets full it will prevent any further inserts, deletes or updates to the database. Part of a databases maintenance is to do backups. Doing full
backups will shrink the database by rolling all the committed transactions into the mdf.
SQL Server 2000 Backup and Restore http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc966495.aspx

Causes of SQL Transaction Log Filling Up
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/110139

A transaction log grows unexpectedly or becomes full on a computer that is running SQL Server
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/317375

There are settings for SQL Server that one can enable to auto-shrink the database. DBCC SHRINKDATABASE

DBCC SHRINKFILE
The user should consider and lay out the best plan to maintain, backup and monitor the database system. Backing up the database is what I would recommend is the first step.

See Also