In the end I opted for converting the flat file to csv then bulk inserting into a temp table all Varchar(100). Now this works great from my C# app but I am at a stop again and google is not really helping. How would you advise I copy this data to the correct table and convert the format on the way ?

Temp Table

USE [SLADB]

GO

/****** Object: Table [dbo].[AlarmDetTest] Script Date: 08/21/2013 16:58:47 ******/

SET ANSI_NULLS ON

GO

SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER ON

GO

SET ANSI_PADDING ON

GO

CREATE TABLE [dbo].[AlarmDetTest](

[Machine] [varchar](100) NULL,

[Job] [varchar](100) NULL,

[Mode] [varchar](100) NULL,

[User] [varchar](100) NULL,

[JobStart] [varchar](100) NULL,

[Object] [varchar](100) NULL,

[AlarmID] [varchar](100) NULL,

[AlarmStart] [varchar](100) NULL,

[MachineFault] [varchar](100) NULL,

[OperFault] [varchar](100) NULL,

[PiecesFed] [varchar](100) NULL

) ON [PRIMARY]

GO

SET ANSI_PADDING OFF

GO

Master Table

USE [SLADB]

GO

/****** Object: Table [dbo].[AlarmDet] Script Date: 08/21/2013 16:59:18 ******/

SET ANSI_NULLS ON

GO

SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER ON

GO

CREATE TABLE [dbo].[AlarmDet](

[Machine] [nchar](10) NULL,

[Job] [nchar](20) NULL,

[Mode] [nchar](10) NULL,

[User] [nchar](10) NULL,

[JobStart] [datetime] NULL,

[Object] [nchar](25) NULL,

[AlarmID] [int] NULL,

[AlarmStart] [nchar](31) NULL,

[MachineFault] [int] NULL,

[OperFault] [int] NULL,

[PiecesFed] [int] NULL,

[Id] [int] IDENTITY(1,1) NOT NULL,

CONSTRAINT [PK_AlarmDet] PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED

(

[Id] ASC

)WITH (PAD_INDEX = OFF, STATISTICS_NORECOMPUTE = OFF, IGNORE_DUP_KEY = OFF, ALLOW_ROW_LOCKS = ON, ALLOW_PAGE_LOCKS = ON) ON [PRIMARY]

) ON [PRIMARY]

GO

Thanks