Yes - new storage bigger LUN. Just trying to get a handle on how others approached problem. Why log shipping vs just a restore (full then transaction logs...

Thanks for the suggestion - I actually use Ola Hallengren's script for all the hosts I control. This one in particular is more under the supervision of a vendor....

So interesting fact ....

All along I've never considered that the statistics would be out of date, because we have a job that updates stats that runs daily. And...

I tried it with the left outer join as previously suggested.

I tried it with CTEs the two selects then the join.

I tried it with table variable the two selects then...

Another interesting bit is that if I use the left outer join with the query hint - OPTION (HASH JOIN), the query runs in about 1/3 the time.

Query tuning really isn't my forte, but the interesting thing is that I can break this query down into 3 steps (1 first small select, 2nd larger select and then...

Here are the two execution plans - one for the left outer join and one for the not exists.

Thanks again for all your help!

Thanks for all the replies.

I tried Phils suggestion of the not exists with the select 1 and I get 0 rows returned.

I'm expecting 2 rows.

I also tried MadAdmins edits and...

Thanks for all the replies. I recompiled the SP with no performance improvement. The query has been very predictable since they made changes to it. It's predictable...