If your table is partitioned you have to create it first as "STORED AS ORC" and then do " INSERT INTO" it listing all fields in SELECT. Also enable dynamic partitions. set hive.exec.dynamic.partition=true; set hive.exec.dynamic.partition.mode=nonstrict; create table if not exists t1 (a int, b int) partitioned by (c int); -- your original table create table t1orc (a int, b int) partitioned by (c int) stored as ORC; -- your compressed table insert into table t1orc partition(c) select a, b, c from t1; ... View more