I have an existing table with millions of rows in it where I have a column which is the `SMALLMONEY` data type and I want to `ALTER` it to be `MONEY`. To make things a bit more complicated it has an index on it which which `INCLUDE` (s) that column so I need to remove that prior to the `ALTER` and then add it in again after the `ALTER`.

I have been running through my test deployment and each of these operations (index removal, table alter and index addition) takes about 4 - 6 minutes each.

I really need to come up with some way to do this faster.

This table is constantly being inserted into and so the shorter the duration the better.

Any pointers would be appreciated.

I am using SQL Server 2008 Enterprise.