 <p><strong>You have an open transaction.</strong> That means SQL Server needs to preserve the state of the table, and any changes you are in the process of making are "dirty" and uncommitted.</p> <p>If you <code>SELECT</code> from a table that is currently being altered with an open (explicit) transaction, the <code>SELECT</code> will wait until the table is in a stable state and the transaction has been either committed or rolled back.</p> <p>To get around this, <a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms173763.aspx" rel="nofollow">you can alter the transaction isolation level on the <code>SELECT</code> query.</a></p>