One situation where I was forced to use multiple instances was because I needed to allow one group of users to run SQL Profiler on a set of databases but not...

A full recovery model requires you to backup the trx log periodically in order to 'clear' the log.  If all you want is to perform full backups periodically without bothering with trx...

For anyone who's interested, we have just released MiniSQLBackup Lite, a free version of our popular backup utility for Microsoft SQL Server.

Use this Lite version to create smaller backup files, and in...

Most third-party backup software uses the VDI specification provided by Microsoft to perform backups and restores.  This is basically an interface where SQL Server passes blocks of backup data to an application...

For what it's worth, try running the query on the prod server, appending OPTION (MAXDOP 1) to it.  Happened to a few of my queries before on multi-CPU systems, where parallelism made...

>>  So I ask...what good are they??

The primary advantage is that each trx log is usually smaller than a full or differential backup and completes faster, so that you can...

Given that you're using EM, when you first restore the full backup, look in the Options page, and in the Recovery completion state values.  Select either the 2nd or 3rd option. ...

Depending on the severity of the system error, you might be able to backup the current transaction log using the NO_TRUNCATE option.

Thereafter, restore the database on another system following the...

If you are already using the WITH INIT option, there isn't a need to have a separate job to first delete the file.

SQL Server 2005/Yukon supports mirrored backups to minimize the risk of media corruption.  So does another product, now. 

Try using the RESTORE VERIFYONLY FROM DISK ... command.  Note that this only verifies whether the file can be read, and does not check if the file is a valid SQL...

Have a look at the Data Recovery Best Practices paper found at http://www.lumigent.com/solutions/papers.html.

Statistics are always created for the first column on an index, and if your database has the auto-create statistics option on, on all other columns (except text & image types)...

You could say that.  From Books Online:

• logical_file_name is a name used to refer to the file in all Transact-SQL statements.

  The logical file name must conform to the...

You can't change the logical file name during the restore process.  Just restore the database first, then change the logical file name later using the ALTER DATABASE MODIFY FILE ......