Reducing the size of a database

Question

SQL Server newbie here. I'm a MySQL guy. I'm having a look at something for a client in their 2008 SQL Server, and need some advice. Whoever designed the database chose to log insane amounts of stuff and never flush those log tables.

The largest table stores complete XML documents from transactions between the app and APIs of sites like eBay. I can only assume that the database being about 230 gigabytes hurts performance. I'm guessing these tables are not queried on in the app, but even so, I don't like the idea of such a huge database. After purging the log tables, I would anticipate a total remaining size of about 30GB.

I'd like some advice on how to go about this. From the little I've read on the subject, after deleting a bunch of data, the database file will not automatically shrink in size. I also read that shrinking and re-indexing are bad.

• Is this large database hurting performance of other tables?
• Should I do something about it?
• How can I safely do something about it that will yield a performance increase?