So, the differences in index size and free space there suggests that the two databases are not identical. Was an index rebuild run on one of...

Ah, but "almost" is not identical. If everything is equal, performance should be identical (within a small margin of error, again,...

Identical database. Check?

Identical query. Check?

If either of those is wrong, one database is older than another or something, statistics updates were run, whatever, then everything changes. However, assuming identical databases...

I bet it's configured there by default

run the query on both servers :

SELECT *
FROM sys.configurations 
WHERE...

The thing is, SELECT * from a table without a where clause is just a test of server settings, database settings, load, contention, and hardware. It's not anything else. There's...

Did the recovery model get changed and the logs are now huge?

Just piling on here.

When comparing the performance between two systems, we have to know that every possible thing is identical before we can say "See, SystemA is sucky and SystemB...

Yes. If anything has changed in the structures such that the forced plan is no longer valid, it'll just get ignored.

I strongly recommend just focusing on the point in time recovery as your mechanism. It's easy to set up. Completely supported in every way. You won't have to do anything...

Whoa! Hold on a sec....

Restore to a point in time. That's all you have to do.

You can't take a full backup without transactions. It's fundamental to the recovery aspect so that it can successfully restore without corrupting the database. Not only do can you not...

...

You're all still here?

Go home.

(btw, hate that movie, but it's a good quote)

You're all still here?

Go home.

(btw, hate that movie, but it's a good quote)