Simon-413722 (11/27/2012)
It seem this article states offline index rebuild will drop the existing index before creating a new index?
Not sure where you saw that. Paul stated in the first section:
Index rebuild (whether online or offline, and at least as far back as 7.0) will create a new copy of the index before dropping the old copy.
The old index is read to create the new one and only dropped when the rebuild is complete. That's why you need at least as much free space as the size of the index in the data file.
Gail Shaw
Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server, MVP, M.Sc (Comp Sci)
SQL In The Wild: Discussions on DB performance with occasional diversions into recoverability