In SQL Server 2000 or SQL Server 7, users had to use client programs like BII from SQL Server 2000 Resource Kit or custom ADO programs to load images to a SQL Server database.

In SQL Server 2005 it is possible to use OPENROWSET() function with new BULK OLE DB provider to read a file and load it as a rowset. It can then be assigned to varbinary(max) column in a single Update statement:

CREATE TABLE dbo.Equipment(
EqId int NOT NULL,
Make varchar(50) NOT NULL,
Model varchar(50) NOT NULL,
EqTypeId smallint NULL,
EqDesc nvarchar(max) NULL,
EqImage varbinary(MAX) NULL
) ON PRIMARY
GO
INSERT INTO dbo.Equipment (EqId,Make,Model,
EqTypeId,EqDesc)
VALUES (1, 'TB', 'DT 2005',
1 ,'desktop')
UPDATE dbo.Equipment
SET EqImage = (SELECT *
FROM OPENROWSET(BULK 'C:My Picturesdesktop.bmp',
SINGLE_BLOB) AS a )
WHERE EqID = 1