symptom: a query like: select HASHBYTES ('md5', @value) returns error message 8152, "String or binary data would be truncated." HashBytes only accepts 8000 characters. For larger values, use: select master.sys.fn_repl_hash_binary(@value) more info: http://www.sqlnotes.info/2012/01/16/generate-md5-value-from-big-data/