Hi Grant,

I've done some further testing on the inserts and it only takes about 15% longer, so not too bad. I'm bulk loading the data via a C# application, using SqlBulkCopy, in batches of around 10k records.

The explain plan on a simple insert of 1 record shows that 100% of the Operator Cost is with the index.

I've profiled the inserting of all of the data and have the following wait stats although unfortunately this is not an area that I'm totally familiar with.

I've used the query provided by Paul Randall at http://www.sqlskills.com/blogs/paul/wait-statistics-or-please-tell-me-where-it-hurts/: -

WaitTypeWait_SResource_SSignal_SWaitCountPercentageAvgWait_SAvgRes_SAvgSig_S

PREEMPTIVE_OS_WRITEFILEGATHER66.5966.590628.7111.098511.09850

LATCH_EX58.8458.840825.377.35537.3550.0003

ASYNC_IO_COMPLETION41.9441.9401018.084.19374.19370

ASYNC_NETWORK_IO28.8726.642.235379812.450.00050.00050

WRITELOG23.2422.810.43625510.020.00370.00360.0001

IO_COMPLETION8.298.260.03173903.570.00050.00050

Thanks again for your support.

Darren