"Your backup is from a different version of Windows Sharepoint Services and cannot be restored to a server running the current version."
DAMN YOU SHAREPOINT! NO IT ISN'T!!!
That was the error I have been facing for a couple of days and it was driving me utterly crazy.
This was my situation: I was tasked with migrating the sharepoint data on an ancient server (PIII 512 RAM) running WSS 2.0 and SQL 2000 to a new server running MOSS 2007 and SQL 2005 - I have done plenty of backups and restores on SharePoint, and they are suprisingly easy. This should be no problem...
Wrong. This turned into a classic battle of me vs. some software, and I refused to let it win! (plus, my boss would be pissed).
You can read the [Details of the battle] or just read on for the solution.
Try #1: Simply backup the WSS 2.0 instance with stsadm.exe, and restore it on MOSS with the same tool;
RESULT: Failure - SharePoint doesn't like that, probably version issues (keep in mind this backup takes 12 hours to run on that dinosaur machine).
Try #2: Back up the WSS 2.0 instance with stsadm.exe using the catastrophic backup/restore;
RESULT: Failure - stsadm.exe did not support catastrophic backup/restore until WSS 3.0.
Try #3: Back up and restore using smigrate.exe;
RESULT: Failure - smigrate was deprecated and is no longer used in MOSS 2007, argh! (another 12 hour backup)
Try #4: Upgrade WSS 2.0 to WSS 3.0 to try and resolve version issues;
RESULT: Failure - the mighty PIII with 512 MB RAM is just too weak for 3.0.
Try #5: Downgrade new machine to WSS 2.0, and attempt restore with stsadm.exe;
RESULT: Failure - "Your backup is from a different version of Windows Sharepoint Services and cannot be restored to a server running the current version."
Try #6: Patch both machines to the same exact version of WSS 2.0, re-run backup (12 more hours) and restore;
RESULT: Failure - "Your backup is from a different version of Windows Sharepoint Services and cannot be restored to a server running the current version." F YOU SHAREPOINT, NO IT ISN'T!
Try #7: Maybe its the databases being different... even though it is said to be compatible, so I will upgrade the old machine to SQL 2005;
RESULT: Failure - The upgrade Wizard goes wild with errors when I even hint to the mighty PIII that I want to upgrade.
Try #8: I am scraping the internet mindlessly now for any options... Upgrade new machine to WSS 2.0 SP3 and restore.
RESULT: Success?!
Turns out that even though WSS Backup/Restore was supposed to be compatible with SQL 2005, they didn't actually make it compatible until SP3. So, despite not even being the same version anymore, it seemed to work just fine EVEN THOUGH THE ERROR CLEARLY STATED THAT MY VERSIONS WERE DIFFERENT! I think they need to revise that error message before someone stabs their eyes out!
So it turns out that all you have to do is this:
- Update both servers to WSS 2.0 SP3
- Backup your initial server using stsadm
- Restore to your new machine using stsadm
- Upgrade your new system to MOSS 2007
That's it... thats the whole answer to my week long battle with WSS. Now I just have to upgrade to MOSS 2007. You can get SP3 here: WSSSP3-KB923643-FullFile-ENU.zip (6.19 mb) - hopefully this saves someone a whole bunch of hours on a ridiculous problem, though no one even uses WSS 2.0 anymore...