Acronis True Image could help you, but you'd still have the hardware drivers to deal with.

It isn't simple, but two years isn't that long. If the development environment is that...

You don't need to check if a table is in use. As Jeff mentioned, SQL Server handles this.

If you do want to manually lock a table/row for some reason, you...

The Windows passwords are reset in Windows. Admin tools on the server or domain

TSQL works inside the SQL Server. If you need to call a service outside of SQL server, you need to implement a CLR assembly to do this.

Yes and no. You can call and they will try to help you with SQL 2000. however no QFEs or hotfixes will be built if you have a bug or...

I'm with Jeff if you can make this happen. The other thing that happens is a web server, or client browser, can cache images, resulting in better performance. That's if...

I recommend detach/attach if you've never done this. You could easily mess up your integrity and miss some data to move if you aren't paying attention with backup/restore.

I'll second the Elric series. My son also loved the Artemis Fowl and Pendragon series. More sci-fi, but at 10 he thought they were excellent.

I didn't get a good quote here about shiny bits. I kind of forced it. I'd welcome suggestions...

Thanks and one minor note. Someone pinged me about me using freedom, as in liberty, when saying that it can be a problem. My use was intended to be freedom...

Are you talking filegroups?

The objects are all in one location, in the filegroup on disk. Not sure it matters other than trivia. AFAIK, an object cannot cross filegroups, so an...

you are welcome, and one thing I'd do is document what you do as you go along, and then save copies for yourself (and put it on a blog).

I've carried...

I work for Red Gate, so I'll mention Response. I wasn't thrilled early on with the way it worked, but I think that's because I was looking for something else....

Interesting thread, and some good info.

Here's the weird one. What if you have a 32bit VM on a 64bit host. do you want to know the host platform? I'm...

I don't remember this being a concern for me ever. Other than looking annoying in reports, or being unable to remove the user if they owner a database, but I...