Jeff - Thanks I'll bear this in mind.

I've now hit a minor hiccup.

I'm using the FOR XML route as this seems to be 99% ideal for wehat I need....

Thank you both for your prompt replies.

I will try these options and let you know which worked for me.

Thank you again

Dave

Thanks GSquared

I will try scripting the Trace off and running it that way.

Any idea why it doesn't affect performance when saving to flat file, but does when going to the...

That's what I suspected.

Thank you.

Dave

Aha!

I think I've found the problem.

It looks like that the G: isn't a dependency of SQL Server.

Now I have to figure a way to add this without taking the resource...