I need to delete all rows of a table containing a bunch of files. Doing a simple DELETE FROM will more or less lock up the computer because of the sheer number of rows and size of files. I'm looking to create a SQL script that will accomplish this task without locking up my computer, can anyone point me in the right direction for this?
Thank you in advance.
Did you try TRUNCATE - this will delete everything.
TRUNCATE TABLE yourTable
from MSDN
TRUNCATE TABLE is similar to the DELETE statement with no WHERE clause; however, TRUNCATE TABLE is faster and uses fewer system and transaction log resources.
Compared to the DELETE statement, TRUNCATE TABLE has the following advantages:
Less transaction log space is used.
The DELETE statement removes rows one at a time and records an entry in the transaction log for each deleted row. TRUNCATE TABLE removes the data by deallocating the data pages used to store the table data and records only the page deallocations in the transaction log.
Fewer locks are typically used.
When the DELETE statement is executed using a row lock, each row in the table is locked for deletion. TRUNCATE TABLE always locks the table and page but not each row.
Without exception, zero pages are left in the table.
After a DELETE statement is executed, the table can still contain empty pages. For example, empty pages in a heap cannot be deallocated without at least an exclusive (LCK_M_X) table lock. If the delete operation does not use a table lock, the table (heap) will contain many empty pages. For indexes, the delete operation can leave empty pages behind, although these pages will be deallocated quickly by a background cleanup process.
