I needed to install the latest AdventureWorks database(s) on my systems here and I found the instructions less than helpful. I finally got them installed and wrote a white paper on how to do it--screen shots, figures, tables and all. See it posted on Developer.Com
Technorati Tags: AdventureWorks,SQL Server 2008
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My personal experience was not as painful getting the sample databases because while installing them (running a sample database installer) I copied the path where the installer wanted to place the databases to. Sure I was surprised to not to see the .mdb file for the AdventureWorks (naturally I was expecting to just attach the database), so fiddling around within the directories the installer created I found AdventureWorks2008.bak file in .\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\100\Tools\Samples - voila! Next my DBA's hand reached out to SSMS and restored it in under 1 min. I guess this is good to know if one messes up the database and needs to restore the pristine instance.