Date: 06/02/06 (SQL Server)    Keywords: database, sql

Okay, so we finally got SQL Server 2005 installed on my machine. (Wiped and started from scratch. Took a week to get it done right. Don't ask.) First thing I have to do: a vendor is changing table structures on me, so I need to go in and change the tables. Simple enough matter. Most of the tables change fine. Two of them, however... when I hit "save," I get a warning box: "saving definition changes to tables with large amounts of data..." then it bleeds off the side of the screen, but in essence it's a warning that the table will be locked. I hit OK, and about a minute and a half later, I get a timeout expired error.

Is there any way to do this without stripping the data, copying the table structure, or anything like that? (In other words, is there any way to save definition changes to a large, heavily populated database table as is?)

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/sqlserver/49376.html