exactly, that is the error

I am reading about a way to do it changing the system tables ( something that I will try in a safe test environment )

This one I try to use it as something to learn how to move large amounts of data, so I do not mind spending some time doing it, will try...

I would love to drop that filegroup but on the current state everything I have tried returns an errors saying that it is not possible because the filegroup is offline,...

That is the ideal, but not that easy with tables this size, I am partitioning it as to make it more easy to handle

after 18 hours the index defrag fail, but I do see some space recovered, will try running it again, thanks to all

will try the checkpoints approach once the other command is done, when I tried the reorganize I checked opentran and saw that transaction running consuming the whole available space

No, I mean INDEXDEFRAG command, not even its creator recommend it but I do not see many options available right now

The alter index organize consumes log space when the tables...

on a test environment I created a copy of that database, after 12 hours trying to drop the index it failed due to space on the log file, it grew...

2008 enterprise, database is in simple mode, and yes that is the clustered index

ok, thanks!

I will just try doing it from another direction

they are not growing out of control regularly, I just want to take prevention measures

and the databases are in simple mode, we have another way to take backups

Now what I...

explain stale stats in a brand new table, with a brand new clustered index with a run of update stats a few minutes ago, again not a stats issue

not an stats issue

what version of 2012?

I am 100% sure it is a bug, you can even replicate it on your side if you also have a 2012 RTM server

just create a table like this

CREATE TABLE...