None of the queries are XML. Simple selects just outputting as file.

SET NOCOUNT ON

SELECT Blah

, Blah

FROM dbo.tblBlah

If it's a default for the UTF-8 format I'm sure...

I am saving the results as text (.txt)

I am running from management studio. For a simple result dump I would think using the bcp would be a little over kill,...

Is the method I sugeted a bad practice on high I/O bottleneck system? Is it a common practice to stagger the table/Cluster on one drive and place the non-Clustered on...