thanks for the reply... sorry for the delayed reply but do you have any figures on how many concurrent requests the server is handling typically....

thanks everyone for the help went with the regexpr stuff at http://www.codeproject.com/managedcpp/xpregex.asp  was pretty impressed

yeah the problem was that the two instances were trying to run on the same port, was not getting a port conflict message (which would have been helpful) just getting...

can you run two sql instances on the same comp running on the same TCP/IP port

thanks for the advice but not sure what you're getting at, the whole issue is to do what I think you're saying and there being a conflict when both instances...

i believe the issue is that one complex type must map to one table.... can anyone confirm this is true?

thanks for the info....

I've simplified my sproc further to work out why it is taking soooo long but it is still really slow (~25min)

Below is the sproc simplified and...

spot on, thanks

sorry I did not say thanks earlier but been away, so thanks,

but how do you change the master collation to match the others.... I have no idea on commands or anything

the result of your test scipt is

ID   FIELD1    FIELD2    ID2

1      a          b            1

2       c         d            1

:  or something similar so that all values of table2 relating to table1 is on a...

Lowell - you are a genius.... you can't believe that so many people had no idea... well done

that was the fall back plan, but will require a sproc for each database, which I did not like the sound of... thanks for the help....

thanks the reseed is a v.good idea!

There are several databases the user may wish to write to ... I understand it may sound convoluted but you will just have to trust me on that one there...