How do I find the data directory for a SQL Server instance?

Question

We have a few huge databases (20GB+) which mostly contain static lookup data. Because our application executes joins against tables in these databases, they have t

Answer 1

Alex's answer is the right one, but for posterity here's another option: create a new empty database. If you use CREATE DATABASE without specifying a target dir you get... the default data / log directories. Easy.

Personally however I'd probably either:

• RESTORE the database to the developer's PC, rather than copy/attach (backups can be compressed, exposed on a UNC), or
• Use a linked server to avoid doing this in the first place (depends how much data goes over the join)

ps: 20gb is not huge, even in 2015. But it's all relative.