Hello,
I can add to your puzzle:
the Create Date on Pubs and Northwind are 8/6/2000 on my servers. This is not when SQL Server was even installed, it is when Microsoft probably released the product. My servers were installed later, so theoretically Pubs and Northwind shoul have Create Date that is install date. But they have a common earlier 8/6/2000 Create Date
Yelena