What if I shrink the individual data files? Is that better or worse than shrinking the database and will that give me back my free space?

Don

I was afraid that would be the answer. 🙁

Don

Thanks, Celko, I'll take a look at that structure as well.

Don

How can I take out the coalesce when it's possible to have a null value there?

I'll look at the covering index though, that would be a good place to start.

The table is 2.5 million rows.

Following is the entire query. If you can suggest a better method I would appreciate it.

SELECT TOP 1000

OM.OutID,

OM.MNumber,

OM.SCode,

OM.LDateTime,

OM.Mess,

OM.CID,

OM.Cype,

COALESCE(OM.Op,dbo.LookupCarrierFunc(OM.MNumber)) Operator,

SCG.Gateway

FROM OutMess OM

INNER JOIN View_SCodeCarGate SCG ON...

Sigh, sometimes I feel very far out of my depth.

I'll look into querying the plan cache, thank you.

Don

Thanks all. What I gather from the responses is that there really isn't a faster way to move/copy the table.

For example, in MySQL I could just go into the operating...

Derrick,

Unfortunately, we've grown out of control on the production database (happened before I came on board) and we can't replicate it due to storage issues.

Alvin,

How do you export in batches?...

Thank you so much for your help!

I'm going to go with the detach, copy, and reattach. That'll leave a viable database on the first server while I'm working on the...

Ok, so the copy wizard is a bad idea due to the length of time it will take. Got it.

What about the difference between backup/restore and detach/(move files to new...

In SQL Server 2008, could I not just use the Copy Database Wizard after setting the database to single user mode to recreate it on the new server? It's also...

Aha.. now I'm on the same page.

BOL is the contextual help (F1) from MSSQL.. I just didn't make the connection between how it's commonly known and how I use it....

Thank you, I didn't know about the WITH MOVE option in restoring a database.

Dumb question. Does BOL stand for Books Online? And is this the Books section of SQLServerCentral.com?

Don

All good ideas. I will look into log shipping via FTP. The database size is currently ~500 gigs and likely to grow a couple hundred more gigs before it stabilizes.

Don

That's what I thought.

Thanks again!

Don