Usually others say this, but it's my turn. It really sounds like you're completely over your head here. I'd suggest hiring, even part time, a pro, someone who does this...

If the goal was move things off a file group in order to shrink it, yeah, then you have to shrink it. SQL Server won't automatically reclaim space unless you...

If you have auto update of statistics turned off, then your statistics on your indexes and tables are only good when they get created (or when your rebuild an index)....

Brandie Tarvin (4/20/2011)

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Steve Jones - SSC Editor (4/20/2011)

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Grant Fritchey (4/20/2011)

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I can't comment on the kick-back program as it's currently configured. Suffice to say, if you've received a check, you earned...

Stefan Krzywicki (4/20/2011)

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opc.three (4/20/2011)

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Stefan Krzywicki (4/20/2011)

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I went to the latest SQL Server Saturday in Boston and had a great time. I'm mentioning it now because I've been using a little...

Ah, you'll have to build out a rather large script that can go into a given backup and get the file structure out and then automatically figure out where to...

On this one, I'd get in touch with Microsoft. That sounds like you've run into something serious.

Koen Verbeeck (4/20/2011)

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I was asked to give a PowerPivot demo in the not so distant future.

I haven't really used it before (but I'm the only BI guy available in the...

Nope, a plan guide won't help. Temporary tables have statistics. As the data changes, statistics get updated. When statistics updates meets certain thresholds, you get recompile events firing. If the...

I would not use affinity unless you've already identified a need to share resources with some other service. Just leave it alone.

I would also leave the max degree of parallelism...

It's impossible to suggest anything to you without more information. The execution plan and a complete table structure are the minimum we need to begin to make even somewhat intelligent...

Take a look at sys.dm_exec_requests and sys.dm_os_waiting_tasks and you can tell exactly what the process is waiting on and if it's blocked.

It's just a standard RESTORE operation using the REPLACE keyword, probably along with MOVE. Look it up in Books Online. There are even examples of how to replace a database...

There isn't one single way of doing this, but in general, it would be the DBA responsible for the rollout. To really get into deployments in detail, I'd suggest getting...

You can try using ping to see if you can at least get to the server. There's also a utility for download somewhere called sqlping that's a bit more specific.