We are trying to replicate our production DNN environment.  I have a working production system running W2K, IIS5, ASP2, DNN 4.4.1, and SQL Server 2K.  The target system is WXP Pro SP2, IIS 5, SQL Express.  I have copied over the file system and backup fo the DB.  It restores to SQL Express no problem.  When I try to access the copy of the site, DNN thinks it is an upgrade and runs an upgrade/install.  It is as if DNN is connecting to some other database.  Please provide me with some guidance as to the procedure that needs to be followed to get the copy of the production site up and running. 

Thanks for the reply.  I beleive that the problem IS with my SQL Server Express.  It seems like I can't do anything with the database (create edit users, etc.)  It seems like what ever I do...SQL Server just goes back to its original condition.  I will research further...thanks again.

Thanks.  I am kind of in a pickle with that approach.  My production site is outside the firewall, and my dev site is inside.  To run any sync product it seems to me that some "network magic" would have to be performed to get it working.  At any rate, I kind of thrashed around a bit with this so I decide to go back to the drawing board and begin from scratch.

So...

1) The first thing I am going to do is restore the DB.

2) Then I am going to create the DNN file system (I have a copy of the prod site that I ftp'd over)

3) I will then update the web.config...SQL Connect String...(I reckon the machine keys will need to be copied over as well?)

4) Then I will try my dev home page...I expect problems, but who knows...I might get it right :)

I will post my results shortly...