How to write UPDATE SQL with Table alias in SQL Server 2008?

You can always take the CTE, (Common Tabular Expression), approach.

;WITH updateCTE AS
(
    SELECT ID, TITLE 
    FROM HOLD_TABLE
    WHERE ID = 101
)

UPDATE updateCTE
SET TITLE = 'TEST';

The syntax for using an alias in an update statement on SQL Server is as follows:

UPDATE Q
SET Q.TITLE = 'TEST'
FROM HOLD_TABLE Q
WHERE Q.ID = 101;

The alias should not be necessary here though.