The first place to search is always Books Online (BOL). Look for SELECT or joins-SQL Server.

The next place to search (ask) is here.

I received this error message, because although I am sysadmin to SQL Server, I am nothing more than an ordinary user in terms of network privileges. Running the copy database...

Get a copy of Chris Date's "Introduction to Database Systems."  This is not "Database Design for Dummies" it is a rigorous treatment of the subject. 

That's no beginners stuff! And...

If you always have only leading 0s you can use something like

select cast('000000003942' as int)

-----------

3942

(1 row(s) affected)

As for the checklist, db design practice:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=B352EB1F-D3CA-44EE-893E-9E07339C1F22&displaylang=en

As for the max rowsize:

http://www.sqlservercentral.com/columnists/sjones/pagesize.asp

As for max. no of columns:

Take a look at BOL for 'Maximum capacity specifications

As for performance monitoring:

Sorry,...

This is the same sequence from Inside SQL Server 2000

Row Offset Array

The row offset array is a block of 2-byte entries, each of which indicates the offset on the...

This will be interesting for you

http://www.sqlservercentral.com/columnists/sjones/pagesize.asp

If you use QA, try Extras-> Options -> Results Tab. There you can specify, that you want a csv file as result that Excel can read.

Hey, why not present the results of SQL Server Best practice analyzer? If they are meaningful and you think that they can help you.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=B352EB1F-D3CA-44EE-893E-9E07339C1F22&displaylang=en

Jonathan, thanks...

Another argument from my own experience.

I am not in the IT department at all, but am sa to all our servers.

While we don't have a dedicated SQL Server DBA...

Hallo Jürgen,

not that I know too much of these things, but maybe these links will help you a little bit.

http://www.sql-server-performance.com/q&a114.asp

http://www.sql-server-performance.com/sg_sql_server_performance_article.asp

Good luck!

I would say insufficient permissions on the network.

Just out of curiosity, can you post the end result?

Apart from the other suggestions being made, when you got stuck with a problem, don't spent too much time figuring out by yourself. Come back here and ask. Should save...

Yes, it does, but at a cost of 2 bytes overhead, IIRC.