My guess is that updating a local table from a remote query (Option B) would be faster.

That really wouldn't make any sense.  Fill factor on an index is not maintained, it is a setting that only has any affect at the time an index is built/rebuilt.

My guess is that it probably would not help much if at all.  We had what sounds like a similar situation where I tried running in Fiber Mode, there was...

Just in case it might be helpful to someone else...

This problem is limited to clustered instances of SQL Server.  In these cases the only way to determine the licensing mode...

You might be able to use a tool like Lumigent's Log Explorer.  You could restore the full backup to a new database.  Then you might be able to use Log...

I would just add that you should be sure that the space is truly not needed before you shrink your log file.  We have many databases which at any given...

Yes, Oracle does treat empty strings as NULL, and no SQL Server does not.  There are two options I can think of:

1.  Create a trigger on the table(s) in question...

You are making what is unfortunately, a very common mistake.  You are confusing logical and physical considerations.

You should focus first on the logical design of the database.  Simply put this...

Veritas also has a SQL Server agent that compresses the backups...

Like kknudson, I have been backing up our databases to NTFS compressed directories for several years now and have never...

The premise of the original post is troubling.  If your database has any meaningful ordering of rows or columns, you have made a HUGE blunder. 

If, however, you want to...

True enough, but as a rule we don't allow cross-database ownership chaining.  That, combined with locking down master as much as possible helps mitigate that threat.

I was not implying that...

"The theory is certain kinds of information SQL can stash only in (or perhaps is more accessible in) the core addressible space, and giving up the additional I/O buffers in...

That's a good point, I assumed that the delay was on shutdown, now that I re-read the post it's not clear... 

We use BindView to do this for us.  It seems to work pretty well.

Depending on the nature of your database (not just its size), there may not be anything you can do.  You might want to check the nature of the transactions being...