Hello -- I'm working with much smaller databases for web-based database applications using SQL Server Express 2005. I've been very pleased with it for the last few years but, unfortunately, I am now getting occasional slow-downs whereby the database server seems to be hanging. I suspect it's the database server because I occasionally get the same behavior when running queries in Management Studio... Although I can't find the cause of the problem or a solution -- it only happens occasionally (but it's frustrating when it does!) -- I thought I would mention this here because the symptoms I'm experiencing are the same, but I'm only dealing with small databases! Also, I should mention it's only happening on my "localhost" which runs XP Pro but, fortunately, it's not happening on my live hosting server which runs W2K3 Server Web Edition.