The second one could be faster because the server can check its statistics more quickly.

I would suggest using inner join instead of Title T, TitleSearch TS             

Select ...

from title T inner...

Can you log on as the user on the database using enterprisemanager, queryanalyzer? The securityid of the user in the database might be different than the one in the master-database

Beware that RAID 5 is slower for writing. Consider RAID 1+0 instead.

Have you tried

execute master.dbo.xp_cmdshell 'c:\project.exe'?

Have you checked http://support.microsoft.com/kb/839279?

The tables must have some unique index/primary key,  which will act as row-identifier, to perform a distributed transaction (like inserting in another server)

If one of the servers runs on Windows...

Both tables have a primary key?

You can monitor the locks on sometable by sp_lock.

Depending on the situation you could move EXEC master..xp_cmdshell 'start C:\FileBuilder.exe', NO_OUTPUT to an sqlserver-job and start it fom your trigger.

have you tried UNC? \\computername\....

have you tried UNC? \\computername\....

The data is available though windows performance counters or master.dbo.sysperfinfo

Thanks, I'll have a look into DBCC PAGE

You can use the sqliostress utility http://support.microsoft.com/kb/231619/.

Does normal copy works well?

Doublechecked SAN-configuration?

They both allow to run the server unpatched. Without sp3 or later you won't be able to connect to it with TCP/IP and perhaps other network protocols.

Some generics:

Select the least amount of data you need.

Check your query plan (sql query analyzer ->display estimated execution plan)

Try to avoid cursors and work out a set-based solution.

Try to normalize...