While breaking up the files and filegroups as you've outlined will help, don't forget about the database log. It needs to be on a pretty fast disk (RAID 5 would...

My experiences with virtualization haven't been terribly great either. To date, the technology I've seen all comes at a performance cost that most users don't want to pay. That said,...

Based on the query that you've described, I'd say a clustered index on the Registration Number. You should probably experiment with a clustered index on the registration number and the...

I finally got one reply over in the Microsoft forum. Buck Woody, Microsofts SQL Server Program Manager, thinks it might be a bug. If anyone can replicate it, please go...

I still entertain myself counting the number of times people can fire a standard revolver without reloading. It's when you break 10 that things get really irritating.

In addition to the query itself, you might want to check the statistics on your indexes. I don't know how many rows the query ought to return, but the index...

When you deploy the stored procedures, they'll use the statistics to compile a new plan. If the statistics are maintained well enough for normal purposes, they'll be fine for this....

If you're using table variables that are more than a few rows in size, switch them to temp tables. Except for a primary key, table variables have not statistics where...

If you also get an execution plan, that will allow focus on the parts of the query that are causing the most problem.

First thing that jumped out at me was...

Seriosly, this is way to big a topic to be answered in a post. Simply saying "customer feedback" is not nearly enough information to begin designing a database. You need...

That really depends on the system. Most of our systems work just fine with the sampled statistics update, but we have a few tables on a few systems that need...

Also, make sure you look up the right way to create a user, CREATE USER. A lot of our 2000 scripts were using sp_grantdbaccess, which will create a user, but...

An index on Registrationno will help more if it's a clustered index. If it's a non-clustered index, the SELECT statement will force a key lookup either against whatever clustered index...

I don't know. I got it from our server admin guys. They handle all the software versions, etc.

That's wild, but as you say, at least you got a result. I'd be happy with a result, even a sub-standard one. Actually, I'd be happier with a sub-standard result....