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I am having a requirement to restore my SharePoint 2010 SP1 backup to previous Sharepoint 2010 version. I googled a lot but hav't found any suitable answer for this. At last one of mine senior suggested me to change the version number of content database in SQL server in version table, and then take the backup of this content database and restore it on the earlier version of SharePoint. I did the same changed the version in version table of content database and restored the backup on earlier version of the SharePoint. Now I took the site collection backup (using SharePoint management shell Backup-SPSite) of this SharePoint system and tried to restore it on the new earlier version of SharePoint, but got the error "The site collection could not be restored. If this problem persists, please make sure the content databases are available and have sufficient free space." there is enough space in my machine.

Now, I tried to install SharePoint SP1 on my system where I restored the backup of content database, when I run the SharePoint Products configuration wizard I get the following error

"Task upgrade has failed with a PostSetupConfigurationTaskException An exception of type Microsoft.SharePoint.PostSetupConfiguration.PostSetupConfigurationTaskException was thrown. Additional exception information: Failed to upgrade SharePoint Products."

Kindly help me in this.

-- regards, Deepak

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Unfortunately this won't work. You will also have picked up from the other comments that the Prime Directive of SharePoint Professionals is that we don't recommend modifying, or even querying, the SharePoint databases.

The best suggestion I can offer is to restore the database in a SharePoint farm of the same or later version and then use some form of content migration to get the data into your earlier SharePoint installation, if you are unable to upgrade it to the current version.

Edit: You say that you exported the site from your SP1 farm using PowerShell (Export-SPWeb) with file compression disabled. You were then able to import this into a new farm running the original RTM version of SharePoint. You were then able to use a normal backup to get this site into your production RTM farm. This is a valid way of doing content migration, with the extra step of restoring to a temporary farm which gives you a bit of extra assurance before moving the content to your live environment.

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  • Many thnx SPDoctor for rpling, I am going forward with this way only now.
    – Deepak Semwal
    Commented Dec 2, 2011 at 6:29
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You cannot restore a content database to a prior version (major or minor). You also cannot restore a site collection. This is by design, and any attempt to change that can lead to instability and you will not be supported by MS.

You will need to upgrade the destination system to the same version; SP1 and any CUs if installed. If the patch failed to install, read the logs and determine the source of the issue.

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    To further Mike's point, directly modifying a SharePoint database is the prime example for voiding your SharePoint warranty and is one of the questions Microsoft Support will try to get out of the way immediately so they don't waste any time dealing with you. "Rebuild your farm from scratch and see if the issue persists" will be their answer.
    – shufler
    Commented Nov 25, 2011 at 17:13

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