I don't know much about SPDesigner's backup approch to comment. I will use Central Admin / Operations for backup and restore.
Hi,
Why don't you use Central Administration / Operations for Backup and restore.
KG
If your server is sharepoint 2007, and the site was customized with sharepoint designer, then using the admin central backup/restore tool you will be able to restore your customization as well. Here are the steps:
- On server 1 where your site is inititate a backup. Depending on your environment either to a san location or an external drive if you have a small environment
- On the new server, run restore, and choose a location to restore to, like a new site collection.
You are trying to accomplish what used to be possible with Frontpage and 2 servers, such as publishing a site to another server. Sharepoint works differently where your content is stored on a database.
Chris D, MCTS Sharepoint 2007
Why don't you use STSADM Export the site collection and import it into the destination server.
Export:
stsadm -o export -url http://yourserver/yoursitecollection -filename c:\Export.cab
And import on the destination server using
stsadm -o import -url http://destinationserver/sitecollection -filename C:\Export.cab
I find this the best way of migrating customisations. Although there might be a few problems using this approach for Lookups on Lists.