how to reduce the execution time.

In my server there are two databases.
i want to select record with some conditons from 1'st db and then insert that records in to the second db.
but the select record contains near 2 lacs.
the query i was written takes much more time (near 2-3 minutes). how can i reduce that..
thanks in advance.

There are two actions here. One selecting the records from source table and the one is Inserting into target table. Select performance can be increased by having proper indexes. Probably Covering Index may increase the performance. ALso select only the columns required. Also use WITH NOLOCK inSelect statement.Select Column1,Column2,column3 FROM YourTable WITH (NOLOCK) Where Column4='Somevalue'in the above statement covering index will include Column1,column2,column3,column4 (ofcourse the most selective column should come first). WITH NOLOCK is depends upon the issolation level you want. Read about this HINT in BOL.How can you improve the insert performance? Its the opposite of the select, ie Remove/Disable all the indexes(if you have any) while inserting. Once the records are inserted recreate the index.ALso check the Execution plan for which step is really taking time.Madhu