Database Files

SQL Server needs to keep track of the allocated space in each data file; it does so by allocating special pages in the first extent of each file. As the data stored on these pages is dense and they are accessed often, they are usually found in memory; therefore, they are quickly retrieved.

The first page (page 0) in every file is the File Header Page. This page contains information about the file, such as the database to which the file belongs, the file group it is in, the minimum size, and its growth increment.

The second page (page 1) in each file is the Page Free Space (PFS) page. As its name implies, the PFS tracks free space available on the pages in a file. The PFS tracks whether a page has been allocated to an object, if ...

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