Question

How do I transfer some rows from one table to another in the easiest possible manner? This is a one time thing. I was hoping I could use VS2010 copy and paste function in Server Explorer, but it doesn’t allow me to paste in rows.

Answer 1

select * into <destination table> from <source table>

Example:
select * into employee_backup from employee

You can add WHERE clauses and specify columns as needed.

As per http://cavemansblog.wordpress.com/2009/06/09/sql-server-how-to-copy-a-table/