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You can avoid unnecessary long reads and poor response time from SQL Server by minimizing the number of autogrow events occurring in your environment. Each time an auto-growth event occurs, SQL Server holds up database processing while looking for disk space for the additional data. Usually this new space is not adjacent to the existing space and causes physical disk fragmentation. As more and more auto-growth events occur, the more the disk becomes fragmented, leading to longer periods while SQL Server reads the databases.