For same DB and same filegroup,  you can DBCC SHRINKFILE with EMPTYFILE option, then drop the empty data file.

Although we can find reasons to do or not to do it, I suggest you create different logical drives.

Good to know. Thanks for sharing.

I think you can consider Replication/CDC/CT. BTW, if SQL 2012 is not enterprise edition, forget about CDC.

I think you're good:-)
Basically, "The concurrent snapshot for publication "My_Publication" is not available because it has not been fully generated ..." is very common. When setting up a replication,...

If I were you, I will take a look at error log for it's more readable:-)

Before using the join only option, I think you need to restore from DB and log backup, and keep it with NORECOVERY. After that, DB will be in Synchronized/Synchronizing status.

Script out everything, or only schema? If need to script out everything, you probably need to think about DB size, the space requirement and the duration.

Interesting. My confusion is, what the system logins are. Generally, I consider them some built-in logins such as sa, NT SERVICE\xxx, etc.
In the company I'm working for, Service Account...

I ran into similar issue months ago. It works well after Network guy help to 
1. Grant permission on CIFS share to gMSA
2. Launch ADUC and add the gMSA to...

I noticed the error message shows problem in log file, rather than data file. If it's not encrypted, but a log corruption, you can try ATTACH_REBUILD_LOG.

It's a surprise to me if fragmentation caused this. Is data compressed in Sybase, but not in SQL Server?