There is another option.  Make some of your filegroups READ ONLY, then backup only the filegroups that are READ/WRITE.  @=)  (see Partial Backups in BOL)

Or do put your large table on its...

I'd recommend running SQL Server Profiler to see if there are any other jobs running after the backup which are still using those resources.  If not, run Windows Performance Monitor...

Also, as an FYI, while xp_cmdshell by itself is considered a security issue, it is disabled by default in SQL Server 2005.  So if you (and no one else) has...

Check BOL for the following keywords "Full-Text Search [SQL Server], performance".  There's a ton of information on the page, so I'm not going to quote it, but I think your...

To answer the second question first, I'm betting the USB connector is the issue for the slowness of the backup.  USB isn't quite up to speed with other disk drive...

Individual database collations can be "changed" when they are created, but the System DBs get their settings from the server itself.  So, if you want to change TempDB, you'll have...

Simpler way to do this?  No.  SSIS is capable of doing so much more than DTS that the this task has become a bit more complicated rather than being streamlined.

However,...

Glad I could help.  @=)  And my apologies for the initial mis-direction.

You are correct.  I mis-spoke.

Try this:  Pull over a Data Flow Task.  Double-click it or Click the Data Flow Tab and arrow down to the Data Flow Task if it's...

Are you just doing a data transfer?  No triggers, etc.  If so, maybe what you need to do is resort to an Execute SQL Task and stick a SELECT statement...

Is this field truly a plain vanilla Identity column?  Does the destination table have two different columns, one pulling the Ident from the source and the other its own Ident...

Look up the keywords "exporting packages" in Books Online for all the various methods of moving SSIS packages.  The wizard can be found by Right-clicking the package in question.  It's...

You need Identity Insert set to ON. 

The best way to do this is to insert two Execute SQL Tasks, one before the import and one after the import.  The first...

If you look under Tools -> Options in SSMS, you'll see an item called Source Control.  If you set it to Visual SourceSafe, you can create (inside SSMS) projects that...

Thanks for the info, Casper.  I'm still learning this stuff myself, so every bit of info is incredibly helpful.

Glad you got yours working.