There isn't any (big) advantage I can see to appending to disk. However there are disadvantages. As Grant mentioned, you can't easily see what's inside. But more so there's a...

You can't do this by Filegroup since a filegroup is a physical structure. The user and tables are logical structures.

also, what about indexes? You don't necessarily have indexes on the...

Mark's procedure will work. It's how I typically restore things for one-off situations. However, I'd recommend you try scripting the restore. You can set up the restore, and then click...

Rudy, a good list and thanks for adding it in,

BTW, you're gen X, like me

If you restore master to a different windows server, at first it will not be visible on the network. It will be responding to the old name. sp_dropserver, sp_addserver will...

The location for the master db is a parameter in services. You can fix it for the service.

Check the Windows Event log for the reason the service won't start.

The same thing can happen with a rouge admin in SQL. If you do not trust and audit your admins, you are in trouble.

TechNet Magazine does this now with Paul Randal

New code formatting engine: http://www.sqlservercentral.com/Forums/Topic794401-83-1.aspx

You are welcome. I'm in the opposite mode. Leaving for a couple days holiday in hours!

You don't move system dbs. The logins/jobs/etc scripts will move the data as do the restores.

Jobs - I believe you script these and run the script. If they don't work,...

I wasn't really trying to offend, but offer my opinion. I've seen so many of the Gen Y, younger generation that tend to act the way I described it. It's...

You have missed something. The backup contains all tables and I have never seen or heard of a table being missing. If it happens consistently, you are missing something with...

The job status is in msdb, as mentioned above. If you have rights to read those tables, then you can query for status.

You would not start a job, or get...