Hi, Lately, I was trying to move my Sharepoint 2007 structure to new servers at a new location with different names (both database and IIS servers). I managed to do it with a full backup restore using STSADM tool and my Sharepoint sites and applications are working perfectly on new servers. The old servers have been used for some more time after I make the move to the new environment, now I need to backup and restore these changes to the environment as well and permanently shut down the old servers. I have the last full backup which I used to move MOSS to new servers. I cannot take another full backup and restore it as I did before because a full backup is about 60 GB and I don't have the opportunity to send this to the new location. So, I need to take a differential backup of the old environment and restore it to the new one. But I did not even restore a diff backup on the same server, so I'm confused how to do this from one server to another. My questions will be: 1) Do I need the old full backup folder to backup or restore the diff backup 2) Do I need to take a diff backup of whole farm or is it enough to only diff backup the content database? All I need to restore is the content changes and permissions/users modifications in sites. 3) What will be the command to achieve this? I moved MOSS using this: stsadm -o restore -directory <UNC path> -restoremethod new -backupid <GUID from backuphistory> -newdatabaseserver <SQL Server instance> So, what will the command be when I restore the diff backup? I think "-restoremethod" parameter must be "overwrite" instead of "new" but then I can't state "-newdatabaseserver" parameter because it only works with "- restoremethod new". 4) Also in some forums I read this: " Restore the entire full backup of SharePoint as well as the differential backup in one job" How? I can't choose a full backup and diff backup from the Central Admin interface, it only lets me choose one. And what about STSADM? Any help appreciated. Thanks.

Hi Batuhan, As far as I know, SharePoint Backup and Restore (Central Admin) and Stsadm utility both include full and differential backup features. A differential backup backs up all changes to the selected content since the last backup (either full or differential). This option allows IT administrators to better manage disk space associated with SharePoint backup files. In addition, the backups are faster. The key issue with differential backups is that a restore requires the administrator to restore the last full backup in addition to the differential backups that have taken place. newdatabaseserver Indicates the instance name of SQL Server 2005 that should be used when restoring any databases when the value of the restoremethod parameter is new. This parameter is not valid when the value of the restoremethod parameter is overwrite. For more information about Restore: Stsadm operation (Office SharePoint Server), please refer to the following articles: Restore: Stsadm operation (Office SharePoint Server) http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262087(office.12).aspx http://blogs.msdn.com/b/joelo/archive/2007/03/09/sharepoint-backup-restore-high-availability-and-disaster-recovery.aspx Hope this is helpful to you. Rock WangRock Wang MSFT

Hi, I am also having the same problem as Batuhan's. I have restored the full backup in new server with new configuration option( new web application and new database). But I am not sure how I restore the differential backup taken from live environment to new server. Can anybody provide the STSADM command to achieve this task. Thanks