Thanks for yr reply both.

We have a datawarehouse - were we do weekly data loading as part of the batch i.e. all loads are a complete refresh of a table. We know the server spec isn't great which we are looking to upgrade. Disk drives are SAN base. We know we have disk retention issues, memory etc. What I want to establish is why a reboot makes a difference in our data loading time and then increases over time - want to ensure we don't have the same issue when we upgrade.

It's either 2 things (a) db related or (b) operationing system related. We plan to do a reboot tomorrow morning and then I was going to examine wait times and run a Performance Monitor on the box, also run trace from the dev box and connect to prod. I will have to same steps on the next data loading window and compare wait times etc - to see if this pin-points anything.

what do you mean by counters? Is it good practice to carry out reboots? Seen on the net good practice is to reboot every night - sounds crazy to me? Do you agree?

Any advise greatly appreicated.