We're happy to help, but having all of these scenarios sounds more like an interview issue than one at work. I'm confused as to why you'd have tape and network...

Not to hjijack the thread, but Ed, do they really need that space?

Gail has a good idea, but I'm still not sure why you're afraid of a clustered index.

If one of the mirror backups fails, both fail.

Go with P Jones suggestion.

I certainly don't want more fans either. The SQLSaturdays have featured a scavenger hunt card, and I've been on a few, but it hasn't been too bad. We'll see in...

Ha!, you spar for real. I'm just an old geezer going through the motions.

Sure, far as I can throw you, which come to think about it, might be a good distance! 😛

I agree with Jeffrey. You buy a cluster to maintain uptime. Don't ruin that by experimenting.

Setup a separate cluster system, virtual if you have to, to test everything before...

I'd agree with Jeff here. If you have a 2008 instance, use that. If all you have are 2000 instances, then go with what you have.

If you use SSMS, a query is issued in the background.

Are you rebuilding all indexes before this? That would cause substantial changes and make the diff approach the size of the full.

If you run a full, and then run a...

What "didn't work"?

The group by is what I'd be looking to do as well.

You could self join as well. Is there a primary key field?

I assume you connect to the instance fine with SSMS or other tools? Is there any other process connecting to SQL? What happens often is that the install looks...

Microsoft and others do publish information, but you have to dig for it. The biggest issues I see is that their sample apps are often cut down, and don't always...

Heaps have nothing to do with database structure. They mean you have a table without a clustered index. I assume you have indexes, make one a clustered index on each...