This looks really useful.

How would you get out the HR info for this GPX file though.

DECLARE @TXML XML

SET @TXML = '<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<gpx creator="strava.com iPhone" version="1.1" xmlns="http://www.topografix.com/GPX/1/1" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.topografix.com/GPX/1/1

Wouldnt't a varchar(2) actually use more space than a char(2). I thought varchar is the number of characters + 2 bytes. So for instance '' would use 2...

Not sure then.

I normally find if my table is zGB then doing an online reindex usually requires z+10-20% of space.

Perhaps do a profile during it to ensure no other large...

How big is the table? you said the index is 3GB.

Is this a clustered index, or does the table have a clustered index on.

If so then your alter index command...

You could just create a new DB, select the data into a table in the new database. Then detach this, zip the db up and re-attach this on the other...

I would start by looking at all the tables and working out what each field stores and how it links together. You could create a table with the info...

I just used a simple mail program called blat (doesn't require installation- its just an exe)

then I use xp_cmdshell to run it.