DTS Transfer Table with Text Column slow

I am using DTS to transfer some tables from one server to another as part of a migration. We want to be down for as little time as possible, but we need the most up-to-date copy of the database tables in question.

I am currently testing the transfer process in our test environment by migrating the data from one database to another on the same SQL instance.

There are 7 tables to transfer and the total size of the database is 450 MB (with around 117 MB used). The two largest tables have around 17,000 records each.

One table (the header) has no text column and it takes just a few seconds to transfer. The other table (the detail) has two columns, one of which is a text column (actually, its not fair to call it the detail table; the relationship is actually one-to-one, but for the sake of this discussion, let's leave it at that).

The header takes seconds to transfer, but the detail takes up to 18 minutes.

Physically, our test server is quite robust; 2 processors, a 3 disk RAID-5 for the data files and a separate RAID 1 partition for the logs. Performance counters don't indicate any real issues: during the transfer, the disk utilization on the data partition occasionally spikes to a high level, but comes right back down until the next spike (the spikes being separated by about 1 minute. No issues with memory, paging or CPU.

I have removed the clustered index on the affected table as well as the PK. No help.

Are text columns just slow? Is there something that I am missing?

Regards,

hmscottAre you migraging the entire database, or just the seven tables? If it's the entire database, you should really just detach, move the data and log file, and attach them. Text columns are naturally slower due to how they are stored though.|||Just as in other posts, I'd pick BCP...out...-n/BCP...in...-n -a32764 -h"TABLOCK"|||'kay. Thanks for the responses. Detach/Attach may be a realistic alternative. My only worry is that the servers are in different domains (though I think that should be manageable).

Regards,

hmscott|||He's a question though...

What is the best way to get text out? What about image?