I'd keep gaining experience and I'd keep re-evaluating how I feel about this. It can be lonely being the only one working on a project, and if it really bothers...

If you don't need permissions off the server, meaning no communications (mail, copy backup, agent, etc.), then use Local Service, not Localsystem. Local System is an admin level account.

If you...

The surface area configuration wizard just runs sp_configure with parameters to change the various features. It's nothing more than a dressed up SSMS wizard.

If someone has access to your instance,...

Nothing comes into play except current size and growth. getting the sizes doesn't give you a clue. You would be better off tracking backup size growth for a few months...

Glad you enjoyed it and I should have said actors.

Hope you had a great holiday!

It's always a judgement, and I think it has to be a debate between sales/marketing and development. I certainly don't want someone in Marketing taking a guess based on their...

I think the simulation path is the way to move. I know lots of people were tripped up on the 70-431 sims of SSMS.

However, I know there was at least...

I've got an MCTS and MCITPro, but mostly because I worked on some 2005 exam books and needed to be sure the books fit the exams, so I took them.

I...

Most of the very talented DBAs I know, including most of the MVPs, have certifications.

It's a selling point. It doesn't prove you are a great DBA, but it does...

and know how it's queried. If the queries use dates, index on the dates, but you have to know how the queries, or at least the common ones, are structured...

Make the SQL Service account the owner of the folder? might be inheriting permissions from above for the files.

It's hard to QA the questions sometimes. It requires a huge amount of knowledge of SQL Server and you'd have to spend an inordinate amount of time setting up scenarios...

Start with the 70-431 exam. It's for the basic certification and it's a general one.

Pick up a book on the exam, and go through it, working through the exercises. You...

The questions has been corrected, and typos do slip through.

The idea isn't to trick you, but help you learn something about SQL Server. There are multiple ways to move...

There are no databases that have Autoclose set?

Very strange. Have you tried Profiling around that time, looking for something strange?

Can you DBCC INPUTBUFFER the SPID when that occurs?