Another technique would be to restart SQL Server with trace flag 3608, which prevents recovery of any database other than master.  This would give you a chance to fix the file locations in...

If you can't assume the default distribution database was used, the distribution databases are listed in msdb..MSdistributiondbs.  You could use:

SELECT name FROM master.dbo.sysdatabases WHERE dbid <= 4

UNION ALL SELECT name FROM...

The most likely reason (in my opinion) trailing blanks are ignored in comparisons is that you have fixed-length character fields.  If you're comparing a char(10) to a char(12) (or to...

The first quote is from the topic "Comparison Search Conditions"

The '' = ' ' issue can be found under "sp_dbcmptlevel" or "Empty Strings (Level 2)"

ANSI_PADDING is discussed under "Setting Database...

From BOL:

Trailing blanks are ignored in comparisons in non-Unicode data; for example, these are equivalent:

WHERE au_lname = 'White'WHERE au_lname = 'White 'WHERE au_lname = 'White' + SPACE(1)

and "If the compatibility...

You can use a subquery to define the aliases if you don't want to re-type the expression in other places.  This is not a correlated subquery that would affect performance,...

Assuming Distributed Transaction Controller service is running on both machines, there still may be configuration issues.  Permissions may be denied at various stages, such as a firewall blocking port 135...

Remi, I'm disappointed you don't have a set-based solution!

This version replaces individual characters with one SELECT.  It will only find single characters, but...

You can use DBCC SHRINKFILE (<filename or fileid>, <current size in MB>, NOTRUNCATE) to get the EstimatedPages value without tying up the server.  If I read BOL correctly this command...

There are a few missing details, such as the recovery mode, whether there is any other database activity, and what your tolerance is for data loss.

If the DB is not logged...

You could use DBCC SHRINKFILE with TRUNCATEONLY, or specify the current file size, to have it execute quickly and return the UsedPages and EstimatedPages values for the file.

The only other...

Execution plan for "select cycleName from tbl_Cycle where dateClosed is null and deleted = 0" with an index on (dateClosed, deleted, cycleName) and [deleted] is a bit:

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  |--Index Seek(OBJECT: ([Sandbox].[dbo].[tbl_Cycle].[IX_tbl_Cycle]),...

Bit columns can be indexed.  They're not very selective, but they can be useful in compound covering indexes.

It might be true that the Convert([deleted]) = 0 expression in the execution...

Definately no Domain Admin service accounts, but you shouldn't use a local system account either.  The proxy account will get the agent job to run but there are many other functions (mail, replication,...

No, he's suggesting with added emphasis that you make a backup (full or log) INSTEAD OF truncating.  Forget that the NO LOG ! TRUNCATE options exist.  These are...