Publish a service without copying data

Question

I'm confused about all of the data copying going on when i publish a service in 10.1
I don't want my data copied anywhere. I have sde on my ags machine so there should be no duplication of data.
I can create just an sd file in arcmap and then i can use that sd file to create a published service and i think the data is not copied.
but what if i want to change the mxd slightly? how would i go about updating the service with the new sd file?

Maybe I'm missing something but copying data is not a good thing in my book. 
Also when i publish mxds as services I see duplicate mxd/msd/sd files buried in esri directories.
I want there to be one copy of my mxd, one copy of my msd, and one copy of the sd. and i want all of those files to be in MY directories, where i put them.

AnnyaCamykal · Answer

Thank you for the answer and the links. I'm getting it now. That part was a little confusing but now it seems to make more sense to me.

Odd I did this couple weeks ago and all was well now ArcGIS Server is not recognizing the data from the store...

KevinGooss · Answer

Thank you for the answer and the links. I'm getting it now. That part was a little confusing but now it seems to make more sense to me.

SterlingQuinn · Answer

The way to avoid data copying is to register your data locations with ArcGIS Server. This is a new concept in 10.1 that is explained here: http://resources.arcgis.com/en/help/main/10.1/0154/015400000505000000.htm

The automatic data copying can sometimes be useful if you don't have the means to log into the server. But most users will register data locations to prevent the copying. If you're interested, the copying behavior is described here: http://resources.arcgis.com/en/help/main/10.1/0154/0154000003rn000000.htm

As you discovered, ArcGIS 10.1 for Server keeps its own copies of the MXD, MSD, and SD for each service, and you'll see them if you dig around enough. There is no way around this, but these files aren't meant for you to modify. They're used internally by the server.

If you make changes to your source MXD, you need to go through the publishing wizard again but choose the option to "Overwrite an existing service". See http://resources.arcgis.com/en/help/main/10.1/0154/015400000297000000.htm   If you registered your data locations, then no data copying will occur during the overwrite. It will only overwrite the server's copy of the MXD.

Sterling