Convert computed column to regular column
-- Create a new Column (unpersisted):
ALTER TABLE MyTable
ADD newColumn DatatypeOfPersistedColumn
GO
UPDATE myTable
SET newColumn = PersistedColumn
GO
-- Delete the persisted column
ALTER TABLE MyTable
DROP COLUMN PersistedColumn
GO
-- Rename new column to old name
EXEC sp_rename 'MyTable.newColumn', 'PersistedColumn', 'COLUMN'
GO
The poster wants to keep the name of the column. I have added a line at the end of Mitch's code to do a rename after dropping the PersistedColumn
-- Create a new Column (unpersisted):
ALTER TABLE MyTable
ADD newColumn DatatypeOfPersistedColumn
UPDATE myTable
SET newColumn = PersistedColumn
-- Delete the persisted column
ALTER TABLE MyTable
DROP COLUMN PersistedColumn
-- Rename the new column to the old name
EXEC sp_rename 'MyTable.newColumn', 'PersistedColumn', 'COLUMN'