SharePoint is my hammer and everything looks like a nail.

We ran into an issue as we had a site collection that we wanted to save off as a template for creating new site collections.  The problem was all the documents were still there and the backup file was 20 GB large. The first thing to do was create a backup and then restore it to a new site collection.  After that, we deleted all the documents.  Next, we cleared out the recycle bin.  Then we cleared out the site collection recycle bin. The backup of this site collection was still the same size (20 GB). Next, I ran a script to list all the files.  I found that the deleted files were still there. Here's that script: select type, dirname, LeafName, size, TimeLastModified  FROM [WSS_Content_Delete].[dbo].[AllDocs]  where (TimeLastModified < '2013-01-02')  AND (Size is NOT NULL)  AND (LeafName not like '%.aspx')  and (DirName not like '%_catalog%')  and (DirName not like '%Style Library%')   and (DirName not like '%_themes%...

Save a site as a template when the option is not available - SharePoint 2010 The option (under Site actions, site settings) to Save Site as Template exists for a team site, but not a collaboration site.  To use that function anyway you'll need to hand edit your URL http://sharepoint.name/site1/_layouts/savetmpl.aspx Simply hand add everything from  _layouts onward to access this hidden page.