Difference in RAID configurations may be one of issues.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_RAID_levels#RAID_6_performance

You may try something like below:

SELECT CAST(SUBSTRING('20080314',5,2)+'/'+SUBSTRING('20080314',7,2)+'/'+SUBSTRING('20080314',1,4) AS DATETIME)

Just my personal point of view.

Adding a cluster on academic year may not be a bad idea if you often retrieve data based on years.

Normally, studentIDs use SSN. It...

In my memory, it is:

\\ServerName\SQLInstallationDrive$\SQLInstallationFolder\ReplData

If you would like to start to build, follow the GUI. You can find the default path and filters. You would not miss them.

Did you try to exclude the data folders of your SQL Server from Anti-virus scanning?

Here are two links, I believe they can help.

http://searchsqlserver.techtarget.com/tip/1,289483,sid87_gci1063700,00.html

http://www.go4expert.com/forums/showthread.php?t=329

Is xp_filesize a built-in stored procedure?

Have you installed xpFileUtils.DLL?

How about

SELECT ts.SymbolID, MAX(t.ExecutionTime) FROM TradeSummary ts LEFT JOIN Trades t ON ts.SymbolID=t.SymbolID GROUP BY t.SymbolID

I copied your script and paste it on both SQL 2000/2005. I ran it without any issue.

You may try FileSystemObjects as your starting point.

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/6kxy1a51(VS.85).aspx

Try

SELECT @@VERSION

Date of the last modification is there.

You may consider the utility, SCPTXFR

http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Administering/howtoscheduleasqlserverdatabasecreationscript/1834/

Since you have to do your work across servers, you may consider to create a device and backup your database directly to your target server.

How about

SELECT * FROM sys.sysusers WHERE uid>5 AND SUBSTRING(name,1,2)<>'db'

How about

SELECT * FROM sys.sysprocesses WHERE waittime >120000