Recently I came accross a blockade after upgrading my SQL Management Studio from 2005 to 2008. All of a sudden if I added a “no-null” option column in a table or inserted a column in the middle of the existing schema I could not save. At first I thought there was some hidden permission I was missing, but after futher research I find out it’s a setting in the Studio itself.

The full error is: Saving changes is not permitted. The changes you have made require the following tables to be dropped and re-created.

To get rid of this annoying “feature”, take these steps.

1. Go to Tools > Options > Designers > Table and Database Designers via the menu
2. Uncheck the option ‘Prevent saving changes that require table re-creation

Note: This is a safety feature and turning this off opens you up to possible loss of data, so make sure you know what you’re modifying or at least make a backup.